According to a team from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research's GRAPES-3 data
For 2 hours, Earth’s magnetosphere was being bombarded by these particles, which emit immensely high-energy radiation, and travel through space at nearly the speed of light.
These things are so powerful, they can easily penetrate the hull of a spacecraft, and Earth’s magnetic shield is our first line of defense against them.
"This vulnerability can occur when magnetized plasma from the Sun deforms Earth’s magnetic field, stretching its shape at the poles and diminishing its ability to deflect charged particles," Katherine Wright explains on the American Physical Society website.
The results indicate that the magnetosphere had been temporarily cracked, and that’s why things went so haywire in our radio systems.
In fact, the team says the bombardment was so relentless, it caused a severe compression of the magnetosphere, forcing it to shrink from 11 to 4 times the radius of Earth.
"The occurrence of this burst also implies a 2-hour weakening of Earth’s protective magnetic shield during this event," the researchers report.
"[This] indicates a transient weakening of Earth’s magnetic shield, and may hold clues for a better understanding of future superstorms that could cripple modern technological infrastructure on Earth, and endanger the lives of the astronauts in space."
The good news is that the crack was temporary, the cosmic radiation was (mostly) absorbed by particles in the atmosphere, and everything should be fine down here in the troposphere.
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