The Truth About the Imminent Internet Apocalypse

The sun’s gasses and plasma swirl like currents in the ocean. Suddenly, an orbiting NASA satellite records a black mass thousands of times the size of the Earth. The satellite sends an ominous warning signal back to its home world: solar storm imminent; prepare for blackout. It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the message to reach Earth. By the time it arrives, it’s too late. A massive ejection of radiation, electromagnetic waves, and high-energy particles is about to slam into Earth, and when it hits, a full-on apocalypse could commence. At least, that is what some conspiracy theorists and doomsayers would have you believe on the internet. The reality of what has been named the Internet Apocalypse is much different than the nonsense that has been spewed across the World Wide Web recently. Is the Earth in danger of being hit by solar storms in the future? Absolutely, it actually happens more frequently than you might think, and there is always a risk that the sun will release a solar flare or mass coronal ejection that could hit Earth. Will this solar event send us back to the stone age? Probably not.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at what scientists and experts have to say about the imminent Internet Apocalypse and its effects on the world. Even though the fantastical claims you will find on the internet when researching this topic are mostly untrue, there is some cause for alarm. A strong solar storm could knock out electricity grids and, with it, internet access across the planet. As a species, we rely heavily on the internet for everything from communicating with one another to more vital things such as banking. The Internet Apocalypse may not destroy civilization but could cause some serious problems. We’re first going to go over the scenario that has led an alarming number of people to believe the world will end in the next year or two.

Then we will explain why this is unlikely to happen but why there is still cause for concern. In this hypothetical doomsday scenario, the perfect series of events would need to occur within and around the surface of the sun. A giant superstorm is ejected from the star and heads straight toward Earth. The high energy particles and electromagnetic waves slam into our planet’s magnetic field, causing brilliant displays of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis across the planet. Unfortunately, the immense number of electromagnetic waves penetrate Earth’s protective field and rip through the infrastructure of our society. One moment the world is in the Age of Digital Information, the next, it’s back to the Stone Age.

 

Most living things, including humans, are unaffected by the solar storm, but people who rely on pacemakers or heart monitors could be in trouble. That being said, any organism that uses the Earth’s magnetic field as a means to navigate, such as birds and sea turtles, becomes lost. Every electronic device on the planet has been fried by the solar storm. Without the internet, the world plunges into chaos. People don’t know how to act without their faces glued to a screen. Anarchy breaks out, and due to the fact that the electrical infrastructure of every major city on the planet has been overloaded, getting everyone under control becomes a huge challenge. This is what has been dubbed the Internet Apocalypse by many online. But now let’s examine exactly where the term came from, what it means, and if we are actually at risk of being thrown back into the analog era.

Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi is a computer science professor at the University of California Irvine. She wrote a paper in 2021 entitled “Solar Superstorms: Planning for an Internet Apocalypse.” The paper itself was a means for Jyothi to examine how ready the planet is for a disaster that may disrupt access to the internet. This paper was meant to be a tool for other academics in her field to help them consider the consequences of a major internet outage and the steps governments and companies should take to mitigate these problems if a solar storm or some other form of disruption in connectivity were to occur in the future. The paper was not supposed to be seen as a prediction of an imminent doomsday scenario.

Jyothi has even said she regrets using the term “internet apocalypse” in her title as it brought far too much attention to the paper, especially from groups of people who misunderstood her work or didn’t even bother to read it and used her writing as fuel to spread their messages of misinformation about the world coming to an end. This all came to a head in March of 2023 when internet sleuths stumbled upon an article published by NASA that included information gathered by the Parker Solar Probe, which was launched in 2018. This satellite orbits the sun to collect data on the physics and atmosphere of our star. Scientists published new data provided by the Parker Solar Probe about solar winds, which were discovered to be the result of a natural phenomenon known as “magnetic reconnection.” Typically changes in the sun happen slowly over long periods of time. However, magnetic reconnection is a sudden change that can result in a burst of energy. This information was then misconstrued and incorporated into the rants of conspiracy theorists and people on the internet.

They stated that NASA was using artificial intelligence to predict when solar superstorms would strike Earth. The conclusion of these misinformed personalities was that there was an impending Internet Apocalypse, and the world would be hurtled back into the stone age because of it. Needless to say, none of these things were mentioned in the original NASA report. These conspiracy theories quickly spread and began to use a peer-reviewed research paper that suggested the sun’s solar maximum, or the time period when it’s most active, will occur in 2024, one year earlier than previously predicted. This again sent the internet into a frenzy as the coming apocalypse was now just around the corner. And although scientists do believe that the number of solar storms will increase in the next couple of years, there is no evidence to suggest that a solar superstorm will knock out the entire internet anytime soon. So, is there any truth to the claims that there is an imminent Internet Apocalypse? Surprisingly, yes, but before we can discuss what future solar events may hold for our planet, we need to understand what a solar storm is and what damage it can cause. Even though it likely wouldn’t lead to an apocalypse in the same way that conspiracy theorists on the internet would have you believe, there are still some major concerns that scientists have about solar storms and how they could impact our society. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections can cause solar storms at any moment.

 

These are two different types of eruptions that occur on the surface of the sun. Both result in humungous explosions of energy and can happen simultaneously or independently of one another. However, each event emits different things. A solar flare releases magnetic energy along with photons at almost every wavelength of the spectrum, while a coronal mass ejection releases gas and magnetic fields. The sun goes through a cycle that is about 11 years long, where its activity becomes more frequent and intense before slowing down until the next solar maximum. Since the sun is not solid, it rotates faster around its equator than at its poles. It’s this difference in rotational speeds that cause the sun’s magnetic fields to bend and energy to build up. Oftentimes, scientists explain what is happening on the surface of the sun as being analogous to a rubber band. As different regions of the sun rotate at different speeds, the magnetic fields begin to twist like a rubber band.

The tension builds and builds until the rubber band snaps. On the sun, this snapping of the electrical fields results in solar flares, which are the largest explosions in our solar system and can release electromagnetic energy that reaches the Earth in just over 8 minutes. What has the internet concerned is that our sun is estimated to reach its next solar maximum within a year or two. But it’s important to remember that only 10 or so years ago, the sun was also at its solar maximum, and we are still here today. Scientists are seeing more sun spots, which are indicative of ejections and the twisting of the sun’s magnetic fields. It’s estimated that there can be as many as 2,000 solar flares in the sun’s 11-year cycle, but since they happen across the entire surface of the star, not all will cross Earth’s path. Scientists also warn that although solar storms are more common during the solar maximum, extreme solar events can happen at any point in the cycle, so in reality, the planet isn’t in much more danger in the next two years than it is at any other point in time. So, what happens when these high-energy particles and electromagnetic waves do reach Earth? Solar radiation, waves, and particles are passing by Earth almost all the time.

This is why the Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere and the Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere can be seen pretty much all year round. However, problems arise when there is an abundance of high-energy particles and electromagnetic energy as a result of a massive solar flare or coronal mass ejection. When this happens, a solar storm forms that can slam into the outermost layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, known as the ionosphere. When the ionosphere is impacted by a strong solar storm, it can cause a degradation in high-frequency radio signals. This is a problem because it can cause planes flying near the poles to lose their radios and navigation. Depending on how strong the solar storm is, the disruption could last anywhere from minutes to hours, which isn’t a big deal for the rest of the planet, but for the pilots, it would be an unnerving period of time. But what about exceptionally strong solar storms? Scientists know that if strong electromagnetic waves and high-energy particles impact Earth’s atmosphere, it can actually change the shape of the planet’s electromagnetic field.

 

This could have a detrimental effect on spacecraft such as satellites, ships, and the International Space Station. Down on Earth, the electrical currents in the atmosphere caused by the solar storm could be picked up by conductors within power grids across the planet. If this were to happen, the power infrastructure around the world could be compromised, leading to large-scale blackouts and outages. This would, in turn, technically lead to a type of Internet Apocalypse where when the power infrastructure went down, no one would be able to access the Internet. However, the servers would likely be connected to backup generators and, since most are housed deep underground, would be unharmed by the solar storm. Once the power came back online, the world would once again have internet access at their fingertips. However, restoring power may be easier said than done. If the solar storm were strong enough to overload conductors and cause massive power outages, the collateral damage would be extensive. It could take weeks or even months to bring major power grids such as New York City, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, and every other major metropolis back online.

This means people would be without power and without any way to receive communications other than by written or verbal word. This poses a significant problem for areas that might be in the thralls of winter or experiencing intense weather. When we think about how reliant we have become on electronics, the thought of losing power to a solar storm is a frightening proposition. If the power grid went down as a result of a solar superstorm, hospitals would need to run off backup generators until the problem was resolved. Cars and other vehicles would still work, but traffic lights would be out, and GPS would be non-existent. Communication between emergency responders and those who need help would also be severely inhibited.

An intense solar storm might not cause the apocalypse, but it would certainly lead to injuries and deaths. It’s important to note that major solar storms have hit Earth in the past, and some yielded significant damage. For example, the solar storm known as the Carrington Event occurred in 1859 a

nd resulted in a surge of power through telegraph lines that caused the wires to spark and even electrocuted operators. This solar storm caused the Aurora Borealis to descend as far south as Jamaica. In 1989 another solar storm overloaded the Quebec power grid, plunging the city into darkness for hours. Then in 2012, scientists reported that a massive solar storm just missed Earth. The difference between the solar storms of the past and the impact such an event would have on our planet today is that we are much more reliant on electronics than ever before. 1989 might not seem like that long ago, but we have to remember that the internet really didn’t become mainstream until 1995, and the first iPhone didn’t hit markets until 2007.