I've read there was a huge solar flare in the 19th century that knocked out tele... | Hacker News

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		OskarS 7 months ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: M8.2 solar flare, Strong G4 geomagnetic storm watc... I've read there was a huge solar flare in the 19th century that knocked out telegraph equipment all over the world. Do we know how strong that event was on that scale?

sva_ 7 months ago [–]

You're probably referring to the Carrington Event

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

The instruments to measure the strength of solar flares didn't exist, but I think it's estimated between X40 to X50.

For comparison, last may the strongest flare was X8.7

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms

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