full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Fabio Pacucci: Why the Sun could crash your internet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


On September 1st, 1859, meirns following the Colorado gold rush woke up to another snuny day. Or so they thought. To their surprise, they soon discovered it was actually 1 am; and the sky wasn’t lit by the Sun, but rather by biialnrlt drapes of light. The blazing glow could be seen as far as the Caribbean, lndieag people in many regions to believe that nearby cities had caught fire. But the true cause of what would come to be known as the Carrington Event was a solar storm— the largest in recorded history.

Solar storms are one of many astrophysical phenomena ceuasd by magnetic fields. These fields are generated by movements of electrically charged piretacls like protons and electrons. For example, Earth’s matgenic field is generated by charged molten mlates circulating in the planet's oeutr core. Similarly, the Sun’s magnetic field is generated by large convective movements in the pamsla that composes the star. As this plasma slowly swirls, it creates areas of inesnte magnetic aicivtty called sunspots. The magnetic fields that form near these regions often become twisted and strained. And when they’re secrtehtd too far, they snap into simpler citifnuoaognrs, releasing energy that launches plasma from the Sun’s surface. These explosions are known as coaornl mass ejections.

Open Cloze


On September 1st, 1859, ______ following the Colorado gold rush woke up to another _____ day. Or so they thought. To their surprise, they soon discovered it was actually 1 am; and the sky wasn’t lit by the Sun, but rather by _________ drapes of light. The blazing glow could be seen as far as the Caribbean, _______ people in many regions to believe that nearby cities had caught fire. But the true cause of what would come to be known as the Carrington Event was a solar storm— the largest in recorded history.

Solar storms are one of many astrophysical phenomena ______ by magnetic fields. These fields are generated by movements of electrically charged _________ like protons and electrons. For example, Earth’s ________ field is generated by charged molten ______ circulating in the planet's _____ core. Similarly, the Sun’s magnetic field is generated by large convective movements in the ______ that composes the star. As this plasma slowly swirls, it creates areas of _______ magnetic ________ called sunspots. The magnetic fields that form near these regions often become twisted and strained. And when they’re _________ too far, they snap into simpler ______________, releasing energy that launches plasma from the Sun’s surface. These explosions are known as _______ mass ejections.

Solution


  1. activity
  2. leading
  3. intense
  4. magnetic
  5. outer
  6. plasma
  7. stretched
  8. caused
  9. brilliant
  10. configurations
  11. sunny
  12. particles
  13. coronal
  14. miners
  15. metals

Original Text


On September 1st, 1859, miners following the Colorado gold rush woke up to another sunny day. Or so they thought. To their surprise, they soon discovered it was actually 1 am; and the sky wasn’t lit by the Sun, but rather by brilliant drapes of light. The blazing glow could be seen as far as the Caribbean, leading people in many regions to believe that nearby cities had caught fire. But the true cause of what would come to be known as the Carrington Event was a solar storm— the largest in recorded history.

Solar storms are one of many astrophysical phenomena caused by magnetic fields. These fields are generated by movements of electrically charged particles like protons and electrons. For example, Earth’s magnetic field is generated by charged molten metals circulating in the planet's outer core. Similarly, the Sun’s magnetic field is generated by large convective movements in the plasma that composes the star. As this plasma slowly swirls, it creates areas of intense magnetic activity called sunspots. The magnetic fields that form near these regions often become twisted and strained. And when they’re stretched too far, they snap into simpler configurations, releasing energy that launches plasma from the Sun’s surface. These explosions are known as coronal mass ejections.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solar storms 4
magnetic fields 4
magnetic field 4
carrington event 2
magnetic activity 2
coronal mass 2
solar system 2
solar storm 2


Important Words


  1. activity
  2. areas
  3. astrophysical
  4. blazing
  5. brilliant
  6. called
  7. caribbean
  8. carrington
  9. caught
  10. caused
  11. charged
  12. circulating
  13. cities
  14. colorado
  15. composes
  16. configurations
  17. convective
  18. core
  19. coronal
  20. creates
  21. day
  22. discovered
  23. drapes
  24. ejections
  25. electrically
  26. electrons
  27. energy
  28. event
  29. explosions
  30. field
  31. fields
  32. fire
  33. form
  34. generated
  35. glow
  36. gold
  37. history
  38. intense
  39. large
  40. largest
  41. launches
  42. leading
  43. light
  44. lit
  45. magnetic
  46. mass
  47. metals
  48. miners
  49. molten
  50. movements
  51. nearby
  52. outer
  53. particles
  54. people
  55. phenomena
  56. plasma
  57. protons
  58. recorded
  59. regions
  60. releasing
  61. rush
  62. september
  63. similarly
  64. simpler
  65. sky
  66. slowly
  67. snap
  68. solar
  69. star
  70. storms
  71. strained
  72. stretched
  73. sun
  74. sunny
  75. sunspots
  76. surface
  77. surprise
  78. swirls
  79. thought
  80. true
  81. twisted
  82. woke