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Every now and then, you'll hear a story on the news about a new solar storm.
你可能时不时地在新闻上听到新一轮太阳风暴的事。
They happen all the time, but they're usually not intense enough to affect Earth beyond some neat light shows around the poles.
太阳风暴一直都有，只不过它们通常不够强，影响不到地球，只能在两极形成一些奇妙的光辉。
But sometimes, they can be really powerful, and they have the potential to wreak all kinds of havoc.
但有时，它们很强，有可能造成各种各样的破坏。
In 1859, Earth experienced the biggest solar storm ever recorded.
1859年，地球经历了有史以来最强的太阳风暴。
Back then, it didn't cause much damage, but if we ever get hit by another storm like it…we're kinda toast.
那时它没有造成太大的损失，但如果我们被另一场这样的风暴击中的话，就麻烦了。
Solar storms are just outbursts or explosions caused by magnetic activity on the sun.
太阳风暴是太阳的磁场活动引起的爆发或爆炸。
Sometimes, as part of one, the sun will release coronal mass ejections, or CMEs,
有时，作为风暴的一部分，太阳将释放日冕物质抛射（CME）。
which are giant waves of magnetism and the hot, electrically-charged gas called plasma.
日冕物质是巨大的磁力波和叫做等离子体的带电热气。
If a CME hits Earth, it interacts with our magnetic field and causes disturbances called geomagnetic storms.
如果日冕物质抛射击中地球，会与我们的磁场相互作用引起干扰，叫做地磁暴。
These storms can create beautiful things like the Northern and Southern Lights,
地磁暴会创造出美丽的事物，如北极光和南极光，
but they can also cause all kinds of trouble.
但它们也会造成各种麻烦。
The solar storm in 1859 was big enough to send two CMEs right at us.
1859年的太阳风暴非常强，向我们发送了两次日冕物质抛射。
We don't know exactly how strong it was because we didn't have satellites to measure it,
我们对它的强度没有具体的了解，因为那时候没有卫星来衡量它，
but research suggests it was the most powerful storm in the last 500 years.
但研究表明它是最近500年间最强的太阳风暴。
When the first CME reached Earth, the Northern Lights were seen as far south as Colombia,
当第一波日冕物质抛射到达地球时，南至哥伦比亚都能看到北极光，
and the Southern Lights were seen as far north as Queensland.
北至昆士兰州都能看到南极光。
In some places, it was even bright enough to read in the middle of the night.
在某些地方，光亮甚至能让你在深夜看书
But the new-fangled telegraph industry also experienced all kinds of electrical failures.
但新型的电报行业也经历了各种各样的电气故障。
Machines sent and received false signals, and even threw sparks that, in some cases, started fires.
机器发送和接收错误信号，甚至抛出火花，这在某些情况下引发了火灾。
Other technology, mostly scientific instruments, went similarly haywire.
其他技术，主要是科学仪器，也经历了类似的失控现象。
At the time, no one knew what was happening,
那时，没人知道是怎么回事，
but this became some of the first evidence that auroras are caused by electromagnetism.
但它成为了极光是由电磁引发的第一份证据。
Right after these events, two ameteur astronomers named Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson
这些事件之后，两位名叫理查德·卡灵顿和理查德·霍奇森的业余天文学家
independently saw a big, white flare on the surface of the sun,
分别看到了太阳表面的巨大白色耀斑，
which turned out to be the second CME!
这是第二波日冕物质抛射！
But except for a few broken telegraph machines, everyone survived the solar storm,
但除了一些破损的电报机器，每个人都在那次太阳风暴中存活了下来，
and it's now called the Carrington Event.
它现在叫做卡灵顿事件。
It could have been called the Richards Event, but sometimes life lets you down.
它本可以叫双理查德事件，不过生活有时会让人失望。
Now, these days, we rely on technology way more than we did in 1859.
如今，我们比1859年的时候更依赖技术。
And if a solar storm of the same magnitude as the Carrington Event hit us...it'd be rough.
如果有与卡灵顿事件同等级的太阳风暴袭击我们的话，情况会很糟糕。
We've put a lot of stuff into space, and we rely on it really heavily.
我们向太空发射了大量的仪器，并严重依赖于它们。
GPS, cell phones, wireless credit card transactions like when you pay at the pump for gas,
全球定位系统，手机，你加油付款时用得无线信用卡交易，
they're all satellite-based technologies.
它们都是基于卫星技术。
And solar storms are especially dangerous to satellites.
而太阳风暴对卫星来说尤其危险。
Energetic particles from CMEs can damage their solar panels, mostly by short-circuiting them.
日冕物质抛射中的高能粒子会损坏它们的太阳能板，主要是造成短路。
And static charges can build up on the satellites' bodies,
静电可以在卫星主体上积累，
which can cause more short-circuiting or false signals.
会导致更多的短路或错误信号。
And even worse, a powerful geomagnetic storm could even cause satellites to fall out of orbit.
更严重的是，强有力的地磁暴会导致卫星脱轨。
The upper atmosphere is filled with charged particles, which can be affected by geomagnetic storms.
上层大气充满带电粒子，也可能会受到地磁暴的影响。
A bunch of things can happen, but they basically add up to a ton of built-up energy, which means a lot of heat.
一堆事情可能发生，但它们基本上是在增加累积的大量能量，也就是大量的热量。
And hot gases expand.
然后热气膨胀。
Satellites just outside the atmosphere would suddenly be enveloped in a hot, cushy cloud,
大气层外面的卫星会被突然包裹在松软的热云里，
which would create drag that would slow them down.
热云会产生拉力，减缓卫星速度，
And if they got slow enough, they'd fall to Earth.
如果他们的速度低到一定程度，就会坠到地球上。
Fortunately, satellite engineers are aware of all of this.
幸运的是，卫星工程师们意识到了这一点。
And while they're not able to fully compensate for the damage from an angry sun,
虽然他们无法完全弥补由愤怒的太阳造成的伤害，
they are working on developing more resilient satellites.
但他们正在开发更有复原力的卫星。
But the impacts of an enormous storm wouldn't be limited to miles above the ground!
但一场巨大风暴的影响不会局限于地面以上的几英里范围内。
We'd be in trouble down here, too.
我们也有麻烦了。
Besides the fact that our cell phones would stop working, we'd also be sitting in the dark.
除了我们的手机停止工作外，我们也会陷入黑暗中。
See, those giant boxes you see along power lines are transformers,
你在电线上看到的那些巨大盒子是变压器，
and they convert electricity running through power lines into something your house can use.
它们将电线中的电能转换成房子可以使用的电。
Unfortunately, geomagnetic storms can cause induced currents in them,
不幸的是，地磁暴会导致它们产生感应电流，
which can overload them and make them explode.
使它们超载爆炸。
This is actually the same idea behind what made telegraph machinery spark in the 1800s.
这和19世纪电报机械火花的原理相同。
It's estimated that if we had a Carrington Event today, most of the United States would go dark.
据推测，如果我们今天经历卡灵顿事件的话，美国大部分都会陷入黑暗。
And it would take years to replace the transformers and repair that kind of damage.
它要花数年的时间更换变压器和修复类似的损失。
Our power grids just aren't prepared for a giant solar storm,
我们的电网并没有做好准备迎接巨大的太阳风暴，
but at least we're getting better at predicting the sun's activity,
但至少我们在预测太阳活动方面好多了，
thanks to organizations like NASA and NOAA.
这就要感谢宇航局和美国国家海洋和大气局这样的组织了。
Now, if we knew an especially nasty solar storm was on the way,
现在，如果我们知道一场特别恶劣的太阳风暴即将来临，
we could at least shut down transformers so they don't short-circuit.
我们至少可以关闭变压器，以防它们短路。
Then, we'd have only a week or so of Mad-Max-style pandemonium instead of years.
然后，我们就只有一周左右的疯狂混乱，而不是数年之久。
So, we'd be in trouble if the sun decides to throw a temper tantrum, but it could always be worse!
所以，如果太阳决定大发脾气，我们就会陷入麻烦，但情况可能更糟!
Other stars similar to our sun can produce massive explosions, called superflares.
其他类似太阳的恒星会产生巨大爆炸，叫做超耀斑。
And they have energies between 10 and 1000 times that of a Carrington Event.
它们的能量是卡灵顿事件中能量的10到1000倍。
And that would probably cause total chaos.
这可能引发完全的混乱。
But thankfully, recent papers suggest that the sun probably isn't capable of producing a superflare,
但值得庆幸的是，最近的论文表明，太阳很可能无法产生超级耀斑，
because its upper atmosphere isn't energetic enough.
因为它的上层大气没有足够的能量。
So if we ever experience a colossal solar storm...just remember: it could have been way worse!
所以如果我们曾经经历过一次巨大的太阳风暴...记得，它可能会更糟！
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space!
感谢您收看本期的太空科学秀！
If you'd like to learn even more about solar flares and solar storms,
如果你想了解更多的太阳耀斑和太阳风暴，
you can watch one of the latest space news episodes,
你可以收看最新的太空新闻，
where we talked about the strongest solar flare in over a decade.
我们在里面谈论了十多年来最强的太阳耀斑。
