Many people thought that there was a large fire burning somewhere.
Others took it as a sign from the heavens of some great disaster thats about to befall man.
Carrington did not know what it was, but he realized it was something of enormous importance.
Sunspots of September 1, 1859, as sketched by Richard Carrington.
But that was hardly a coincidence.
Most flares requirespecial filtersto be seen from Earth, and these equipment had not been invented at that time.
A magnificent solar storm erupted out into space on August 31, 2012.
This image was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.
Newspapers the following day featuredglowing reportsabout aurora that turned night into day.
The dazzling visuals were also accompanied by large-scale havoc.
TheDaily Chronicle and Sentinelreported that the system actually worked better without the batteries connected.
A Carrington-class solar storm could effectively send the world back to the Dark Ages, saysScience Alert.
Earth wasalmost struckby a storm of such ferocity in July 2012.
The large cloud of hot plasma went through the earths orbit but missed the planet by only nine days.
If it had hit, said Baker, we would still be picking up the pieces.
Leading image of the Northern Lights byJamen Percy/Shutterstock.com
