Space & Astronomy

Solar flares almost started a nuclear war

By T.K. Randall
August 12, 2016

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) During the Cold War, the world narrowly avoided an all-out nuclear war on more than one occasion.

One such incident took place on May 23rd, 1967 when US military radar systems designed to detect incoming Soviet missiles suddenly started to experience widespread disruption.

Believing that this was a prelude to an all-out attack by the Soviet Union, US authorities took the decision to prepare their own planes, each brimming with nuclear missiles, for mass deployment.Before any missiles could be launched however the order came in to stand down. It turned out that, far from being a sign of imminent attack, the radar disruption was actually the result of a solar storm.

"This is what we would characterize as a really near miss," said researcher Delores Knipp.

"The aircraft did not launch - we're pretty certain of that. Was war imminent? What we know is that decisions were being made on the tens of minutes to hours basis, and that information got to the right place at the right time to prevent a disaster."

Source: Gizmodo

Tags: Nuclear, Solar Flare