Science bits: Solar ejaculation wrecks ~40 satellites brings thoughts on civilization collapse

Also known as an eruption, flare, particle storm, geomagnetic storm, coronal mass ejection, or whatever else.

NPR reports on the Sun’s ‘outburst’ back in February:

Only a fraction of the 49 satellites SpaceX launched into orbit last week survived a geomagnetic storm, the company says. As many as 40 of the Starlink satellites "will reenter or already have reentered the Earth's atmosphere," according to SpaceX.

The satellites were launched into low-Earth orbit last Thursday, with the plan of bringing them up to a higher altitude. But one day later, a strong geomagnetic storm dramatically changed conditions in the atmosphere, spoiling many of the satellites' chances of reaching their final orbit.

Citing GPS data, SpaceX says the storm “caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches.”

That increased drag hurt the satellites' chances of reaching their final orbit, a preliminary analysis by the company suggests. “SpaceX tried to save them, but in the end, only nine satellites are expected to survive,” NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports.

The satellites that can't maintain orbit will burn up as they reenter Earth's atmosphere, “meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground,” SpaceX said.

Currently there are ~2000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit. About 2000 more are planned. Starlink is a satellite internet system operated by SpaceX, an Elon Musk company. It provides satellite internet access to 40 countries. SpaceX intends to use Starlink to provide global mobile phone service sometime after 2023.

And then, things get really bad

I mention this science bit about the lost satellites to raise a far more important point. The situation could have been much worse than a mostly unnoticed loss of some satellites. Solar ejaculations can collapse some or most of civilization pretty easily. A big one just might cause the human species to go extinct.

The science series, The End Is Nye, narrated by Bill Nye the Science Guy, devotes one program (Forever Blackout) to what would happen if Earth gets hit by a really big juicy solar . . . whatever. The List commented: 

The series covers everything from a massive comet hurtling toward the Earth to an out-of-control dust storm. Yet there's one disaster that Nye is most afraid of actually happening. “The one that really has me thinking is the coronal mass ejection,” he admitted in an exclusive interview with The List. 

Creating the third episode of The End Is Nye left Bill Nye feeling concerned. If a solar flare from the sun actually came hurtling toward the Earth, the world would be in a whole lot of trouble. “These charged particles — the energy in the charged particles — would interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and turn off all the lights,” Nye told The List. “All the electricity in the world would shut down.”

It turns out, this catastrophic event has happened once before in human history. In 1859, a man named Carrington made the connection between solar flares and fires that were spreading all over the Earth. Many of these were causing telegraph offices to completely shut down. “Now, there are so many wires running everywhere all the time,” Nye said. “If we had a couple of these mass ejections back to back, like the Earth spun 12 hours and it happened again, all the electricity in the world [would] shut off.”

A repeat of the Carrington Event today would make it impossible to microwave our meals or even watch “Bill Nye the Science Guy” on our TVs. “No more refrigeration, no more cars, no more virtual movie interviews,” Nye said. “It would be a drag really fast.”

Bill Nye in a Faraday cage to prevent being fried by 

too much electromagnetic energy, like from a 

bolt of lightening or a juicy solar . . . event

To harden the grid, put electrical 

transformers in Faraday cages

Currently we aren’t doing squat to prepare

We like to react, not proact

(no surprise there ☹️)

So, when a nasty solar event hits Earth, the best one can hope for is that it is the middle of the night. In that case, I think that thoughts and prayers ought to go out to people where it is daytime. Right after that, once the ramifications of what happened to people on the bright side sinks in, I think that thoughts and prayers ought to go out to people where it is night time.