It ’s decently likely that , sometime in the future , a major solar storm will hit Earth , bring mayhem on our infrastructure and crippling our satellites . But there ’s a more farseeing - term danger : blank could become too hazardously radioactive to stay there .
And some raw research indicates that we could look a post that keeps us from exploring space , within our life-time .
While we have n’t send off humans beyond down - Earth orbit in cheeseparing to forty years , we ’ve carved out quite a niche for ourselves in the orbit of blank space directly around our satellite . The International Space Station provides a constant human presence in space , and we ’ve built up a massive meshwork of satellites that are crucial to our communications base , not to mention seafaring , scientific research , weather condition monitoring , and a clump of other thing .
What allow us to keep humans and all that raw electronics up there is the presence of huge cloud of plasm , which stretch out out to a few clip Earth ’s radius and provide a buff zone against cosmic radiotherapy . Without this protective swarm , electromagnetic waves could form , which would send lethal radiation syndrome fusillade into the space above Earth .
The problem is that this swarm can be destroyed if a big enough solar storm hits it . Recent Sun activity in October 2003 cause the cloud to contract to just two times the Earth ’s radius , and scientists conceive that a huge solar burst in 1859 entirely destroyed the protective level . Of naturally , there were n’t almost as many communication theory satellite up in space in the mid-19th one C , so that did n’t have nearly as big an wallop as the destruction of the cloud would if it go on today .
According to new research from UCLA , a big enough solar storm would make a belt of grievous radiation right on the sharpness of low - terra firma orbit . This would place astronauts and satellites alike at the mercy of electromagnetic wave and dangerous radiation . The researchers depend that this belt would remain for at least a decade before the plasma cloud began to reassert itself .
In that time , the belt would drastically reduce the lifespan of satellites . It ’s an open question whether it would be secure for astronaut to stay in the International Space Station – the answer plausibly depend on the level of severity of the solar violent storm . It might also put some tortuousness for any plan missions beyond depressed - Earth orbit . Admittedly , that ’s not something we have to vex about right now , but hey … the solar fire could happen in the 2040s , by which time we might just be quick to return to the Moon or something .
Anyway , lead researcher Yuri Shprits suggests that installing thicker shielding around satellite electronics could stave in off some of the problem . But the fact is , blank space really is a dangerous , inhospitable place , and for all the challenges and episodic calamity we ’ve endured while exploring it , so far space has been passably prosperous on us . One big solar violent storm could transfer that for the foreseeable future tense .
Space WeatherviaNew Scientist .
AstronomyEarthSatelliteSolar stormSpace weather
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