The first solar flare ever observed was also by far the biggest yet seen. But such a monster storm will happen again. And when it does, it’s unlikely that even a single spacecraft in Earth orbit will come out unscathed. And many could be destroyed.

The benchmark storm so far was the Carrington Event. It was observed by British astronomer Richard Carrington, in 1859. He saw a brilliant flash of light erupt from a dark sunspot. The eruption produced beautiful displays of the northern and southern lights. It also zapped telegraph wires, disrupting transmissions and even starting fires in some stations.

Scientists at the European Space Agency recently simulated what would happen to satellites if such a monster storm hit us today. They concluded that it would be bad – really bad.

Over a period of about a day, GPS systems would fail. Satellite instruments would glitch or fail, entire satellites would be destroyed, and some ground stations would be knocked out.

Earth’s outer atmosphere would expand dramatically, dragging satellites down. That would increase the risk of collisions, and reduce the time in orbit for any survivors.

Operators can take some actions to protect their satellites. But that requires good forecasts of space weather. And future satellites could be equipped with better shielding. Even with those precautions, though, no satellite would be unaffected by the fury of a monster storm on the Sun.

Script by Damond Benningfield