• Question: what is the biggest explosion you've seen yet?

    Asked by anon-219108 to Emma on 13 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Emma Davies

      Emma Davies answered on 13 Jun 2019:

      The biggest explosion, or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) as they’re known, that I’ve personally looked at was launched from the Sun on the 22nd October 2011. It came almost straight towards the Earth at a speed of over 1000 km/s!

      The biggest we have on record however, happened in 1859 and is known as the Carrington Event. It was named after Richard Carrington who was studying the Sun at the time and saw it happen! When it reached the Earth it was so strong that it caused the aurora (Northern Lights) to be seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii!! It also set telegraph poles on fire! So we’re really lucky that we’ve not had one that strong reach Earth since – otherwise it’d cause a lot of damage to satellites as well as power stations that we didn’t have back in 1859!

Comments