What was the 1859 Carrington Event? As a massive solar flare, this event disrupted global telegraph systems and caused visible auroras all over the world.

What Carrington and the awestruck people of the subtropical Atlantic saw were related. The aurora was a result of the most intense solar storm in recorded history, now called the Carrington Event.

This historically large sunspot, now 15 times wider than Earth, rivals the one linked to the colossal solar storm of 1859.

NASA Creates Incredible Visualization Of One Of The Largest Solar Storms Observed In Space Earth almost risked a Solar Storm as powerful as the 1859 Carrington Event.