World paralyzed for months: A “massive solar storm” could soon hit Earth and cause an “internet apocalypse,” NASA warns

“Internet Apocalypse”. The term sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, and yet it’s a real threat that NASA is actively preparing for. By 2025, A ‘giant solar storm’ could hit Earth and causing major disruptions, reports Daily Express.

But before going into the explanation, a few concepts to understand what we are talking about. During solar storms our star emits charged particles. These solar discharges, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), travel through space at speeds up to 11 million km/h. To get an idea, Soil emits these CMEs towards Earth 20 times per week depending on its activity cycle.

When CMEs hit the Earth’s magnetic field that acts as a shield for our planet, they are known as geomagnetic storms. To date, no living person has witnessed a major disturbance. The only known large-scale event, known as the Carrington event, occurred in 1859, before a near miss occurred in 2012 and mankind became dependent on electricity.

However, some forecast models suggest that such an event could happen From next yearThat’s when the Sun will enter a particularly active period known as “solar maximum.”

France will lose 800 million euros per day

Thus, if a coronal mass ejection of the same magnitude as that of 1859 were to occur on Earth today, the electronics of orbiting satellites would be significantly damaged, causing disruption to navigation and communication systems. GPS synchronization, essential to the functioning of the Internet, will be severely compromised.

The results Such a disaster would be terrible. Billions of people could be without access to the Internet, severely disrupting communications and transportation. In other words, the world will be paralyzed. It’s impossible to predict how long the outage will last, but some experts estimate it could last for months.

Financial services and the entire global economy will also come to a complete halt. As per the organization’s calculations NetBlock, which estimates the economic impact of internet outages, 24 hours without a connection would cost France around 800 million euros.

Despite this hypothetically imminent threat, there is a glimmer of hope, because NASA Takes preventive measures. The US space agency is investing in monitoring and defense technologies to mitigate the effects of potentially devastating solar storms.