NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft happened to be sitting in the path of the July 2012 Carrington-class storm and took the full hit instead of Earth — the only reason we have detailed measurements of a blow we never felt

NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft happened to be sitting in the path of the July 2012 Carrington-class storm and took the full hit instead of Earth — the only reason we have detailed measurements of a blow we never felt

On July 23, 2012, NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft was drifting ahead of Earth in its solar orbit when a coronal mass ejection tore off the Sun and slammed directly into its instruments — a blast that would later be measured at Carrington-class intensity, the same scale as the 1859 storm. STEREO-A felt it. Earth did not. The spacecraft was sitting in the path of the eruption, and because it kept recording through the impact, scientists now have the on…