Where does this come from, and can I check it?

A huge coronal mass ejection sent auroras as far south as the Caribbean. The figure is taken from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

The 1859 solar storm set telegraphs alight

A huge coronal mass ejection sent auroras as far south as the Caribbean Richard Carrington was sketching a sunspot group on 1 September 1859 when a bright flare erupted beneath his pen. Hours later auroras appeared over the tropics and telegraph lines threw sparks, some working without their batteries. A storm of that size today would disrupt satellites, navigation and power grids. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Morse sent the first public telegraph messageA line from Washington to Baltimore carried a short biblical line in May 1844 A submarine cable joined Europe and America in 1866Messages that once took ten days by ship now arrived in minutes Samuel Morse sent the first long-distance telegraph message in 1844The message What hath God wrought travelled over wires between Washington and Baltimore The electric telegraph was first deployed commercially along British railwaysWilliam Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone installed telegraph lines along track tracks in 1837 Comet ion tails point away from the SunSolar wind sweeps charged gas backwards whether the comet is arriving or leaving Sunspots look dark but are merely coolerThe dark cores sit at about 3,800 kelvin against a 5,800 kelvin surface

Tags: space-weather, solar-storm, telegraph

The 1859 solar storm set telegraphs alight: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A huge coronal mass ejection sent auroras as far south as the Caribbean. The figure is taken from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.