00:00 The sun is ramping up for its solar maximum, and recently experts announced they predict
00:07 it's coming much sooner than expected, like possibly next month soon.
00:11 That will include some of the most extreme solar activity we've seen in over a decade,
00:16 and now NASA is reporting a massive coronal hole, 60 times the size of our planet.
00:22 Experts say this particular spot is 500,000 miles long.
00:25 Coronal holes are essentially giant sunspots, cooler areas of the solar surface where the
00:29 sun's magnetic field lines open into space.
00:32 This allows the release of solar winds, which can send solar storms hurling out into the
00:36 cosmos, and experts say this one was pointed right at us.
00:39 The results of the massive coronal hole and solar winds striking our planet ended up being
00:44 little more than a solar storm, fairly noticeable.
00:46 However, some events like this can be much more intense, like the geomagnetic storm in
00:51 1859, one now referred to as the Carrington event.
00:54 That storm created not only the wild auroras we expect from intense solar activity, but
00:58 it also knocked out communications all over the world, and there were even reports of
01:02 telegraph operators receiving electric shocks.
01:05 Experts agree that if a similar event occurred today, it would be utterly catastrophic, as
01:09 we are now far more reliant than ever on technology.
01:13 [music]
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