End of the world: Will 2013 space storm kill us all off?
Satnavs and air travel will also be hit as major satellites stop working when the Sun reaches a frenzied frequency of sun spots.
A ‘once-in-a-generation’ space storm is forecast to stretch from late 2012 into 2013 when the Sun’s 22- year magnetic energy cycle coincides with its 11-year peak in superpowered sun spot activity.
‘We know it’s coming but we don’t know how bad it’s going to be,’ said Dr Richard Fisher, head of Nasa’s Heliophysics division.
‘Systems will just not work. The flares rapidly change the magnetic field on the earth, like a lightning bolt. That is the solar effect.’
A powerful solar storm could cause more damage than Hurricane Katrina, which left New Orleans with an £85billion cleaning and reconstruction bill.
Prof Richard Harrison from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire told Metro: ‘The sun is now waking up. It’s been very inactive but there’s a lot of debate about how dramatic its waking up will be.’
And it was not scaremongering, he said, to say the effects could be felt at the London 2012 Olympics – with power cuts in the city and broadcasting disruption as satellites were knocked out of action.
Or, as Private Fraser would concisely conclude: ‘We’re doomed.’
A ‘once-in-a-generation’ space storm is forecast to stretch from late 2012 into 2013 when the Sun’s 22- year magnetic energy cycle coincides with its 11-year peak in superpowered sun spot activity.
‘We know it’s coming but we don’t know how bad it’s going to be,’ said Dr Richard Fisher, head of Nasa’s Heliophysics division.
‘Systems will just not work. The flares rapidly change the magnetic field on the earth, like a lightning bolt. That is the solar effect.’
A powerful solar storm could cause more damage than Hurricane Katrina, which left New Orleans with an £85billion cleaning and reconstruction bill.
Prof Richard Harrison from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire told Metro: ‘The sun is now waking up. It’s been very inactive but there’s a lot of debate about how dramatic its waking up will be.’
And it was not scaremongering, he said, to say the effects could be felt at the London 2012 Olympics – with power cuts in the city and broadcasting disruption as satellites were knocked out of action.
Or, as Private Fraser would concisely conclude: ‘We’re doomed.’
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