In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed
in a gigantic cloud of seething gas, and a blood-red
aurora erupted across the planet from the poles to the
tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed,
machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered
operators unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive
instruments reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic
fist. For the first time, people began to suspect that
the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the
universe. However, nobody knew what could have released
such strange forces upon the Earth - nobody, that is,
except the amateur English astronomer Richard
Carrington. In this riveting 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 the Sun's
magnetism directly influences the Earth - helped to
usher in the modern era of astronomy. Clark vividly
brings to life the scientists who roundly rejected the
significance of Carrington's discovery of solar flares,
as well as those who took up his struggle to prove the
notion that the Earth could be touched by influences
from space.Clark also reveals new details about the
sordid scandal that destroyed Carrington's reputation
and led him from the highest echelons of science to the
very lowest reaches of love, villainy, and revenge.
''The Sun Kings'' transports us back to Victorian
England, into the very heart of the great
nineteenth-century scientific controversy about the
Sun's hidden influence over our planet. |
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