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Carbon-14 (14C) found in Japanese cedars shows that our Sun is capable of producing flares 60 or more times more powerful than the one that hit the Quebec power grid in 1989 year. Mysterious surge in atmospheric carbon -14 V 12th century may be a sign that the sun is capable of producing solar storms are dozens of times worse than all that we have ever seen, according to a team of physicists in an article published on this week in the journal Nature. Carbon-14 (14C) occurs when high-energy radiation entering the upper atmosphere Earth, converting nitrogen-14 to 14C, which ultimately It appears in plants as a result of photosynthesis. At the beginning of this years, a group of Japanese physicists discovered a surge in 14C in the rings Japanese cedar trees, familiarizing themselves with a 774-75 year old growing season. But they could not explain how C14 could penetrate the tissue because all possible explanations seemed unlikely. But Adrian Melott, a physicist from Kansas University Lawrence, who is the lead author new study says the Japanese team did miscalculations, not taking into account one of these possibilities – giant solar storms. The problem, according to Melott, is in that the Japanese team viewed the solar storms as if they shone like light bulbs radiating energy evenly in all directions. But in fact, they produce ‘drops’ energetic plasma that explode unevenly from the outside. Sizing, he says, namely zooming solar storm needed to produce an observed burst 14C with more than 1000 times, from known to us, only to the category 10-20 times larger, which means that giant solar storms, as a reasonable explanation, should again be on the table of scientists. In addition, the NASA Kepler space telescope observations found that stars like the sun are capable of generating superstorms of this class with a period of several hundred or 1000 years. This does not mean that the Sun “does the same,” but I suppose that is reasonable, “argues Melott. Other possible explanations bursts are unlikely. Explosion radiation a supernova has enough power, but a supernova would have to be about 100 light-years away, says Melott. “Such an event would be dazzlingly brighter, much brighter than full moon. This bright event would go on for several months, and civilizations existing on Earth could not have note in his observations. “Another possibility is to gamma-ray burst from farther supernovae. But such surges are rare and are a beam of radiation similar to a searchlight beam, which is unlikely to hit us. “I don’t think so,” says Melott. If the event detected in the rings of vegetation for 774-75 years, there really was a flash, I find it disturbing. Such outbreaks will be about 60 times more powerful than a solar storm in 1989, which disrupted power grids for the most part Quebec province for nine hours on a cold winter night. Multiply it’s at 60 and add two decades of increased technological vulnerabilities, and the consequences can be disastrous. “Many people can die, “Melott says.” You may be without electricity for several months or longer – without the ability to cool food, transport it to all people, who live in big cities. ”
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