Earth was bombarded with an enormous dose of cosmic radiation more than 14,000 years ago, newly discovered tree rings reveal — and researchers suspect it was caused by an enormous, superpowered solar storm, the likes of which we have never seen before.
Researchers think the radiation spike came from a massive solar storm, most likely triggered by a fast-moving cloud of magnetized plasma and radiation known as a coronal mass ejection that was launched into space by a humongous solar flare. What the gigantic storm would have looked like is beyond our current comprehension.
Miyake events are believed to be"several orders of magnitude" greater than the Carrington Event, the researchers wrote. Scientists think the most recent Miyake event was around 80 times more powerful than the Carrington Event, Live Science previously reported. But the newly discovered superflare could have been twice as powerful again, researchers wrote.