The kings of the sun

The story of the beginning of modern astronomy and the unusual tragedy of Richard Carrington. In September 1859, the Earth was enveloped by a gigantic cloud of boiling gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted from the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems collapsed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks knocked operators unconscious. For the first time, people began to suspect that the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the universe. However, no one knew what could have unleashed such strange forces on the planet—that is, no one except the English amateur astronomer Richard Carrington. In this gripping account, Stuart Clark tells for the first time the full story behind Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the surface of the Sun and how his brilliant insight—that solar magnetism exerts a direct influence on Earth—helped usher in the modern era of astronomy.