'Pushed back to the Stone Age': massive solar storm missed Earth by just one week

By Peter Hannam
Updated July 25 2014 - 7:08pm, first published 11:55am
The solar storm was the most powerful detected in more than 150 years.  Photo: NASA
The solar storm was the most powerful detected in more than 150 years. Photo: NASA
Hot spot: a burst of magnetism from the sun just missed Earth two years ago. Photo: NASA
Hot spot: a burst of magnetism from the sun just missed Earth two years ago. Photo: NASA

Modern civilisation came within a week of being “pushed back to the Stone Age” after eruptions in the sun two years ago sent massive clouds of magnetised plasma through the Earth’s orbital path.

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