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, a coronal mass ejection of Carrington-class intensity tore off the Sun and struck NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft head-on. Earth had been in that exact spot a week earlier. The data the probe captured remains the only direct measurement of an extreme solar storm ever recorded. The post 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 w