{"id":8976,"date":"2011-10-26T11:26:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T15:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=8976"},"modified":"2011-11-03T13:56:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T17:56:46","slug":"did-earths-magnetic-field-block-harold-campings-end-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/did-earths-magnetic-field-block-harold-campings-end-of-the-world","title":{"rendered":"Did Earth’s magnetic field block Harold Camping’s end of the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A glowing sky in Indiana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Red and pink streaks have been filling the night sky across America — spotted even in the Deep South. Does it\u00a0mean that doomsday preacher Harold Camping’s often-predicted end of the world is here?<\/p>\n

Well, actually, there was an event in space that\u00a0 could have been catastrophic.<\/p>\n

It seems Earth was hit by a “coronal mass ejection,” according to the meteorologists, astronomers and sky-gazers at spaceweather.com.<\/a>\u00a0Basically, the sun hurled a big blast of solar energy and gas into space — but Earth’s magnetic fields\u00a0blocked it from destroying\u00a0all life as we know it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lights in the sky over Michigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before you get too alarmed, the magnetic field — which also causes compass needles to point north — does this all the time.<\/p>\n

This blast was just unusally strong — and arrived hours earlier than astronomers predicted.<\/p>\n

In Arctic and Antarctic areas, dancing, glowing lights in the sky are ho-hum stuff,\u00a0the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis<\/em> here, the southern Aurora Australis<\/em> down under.<\/p>\n

Mars and earth’s moon both lack such a protective magnetic field — perhaps explaining the apparent lack of life there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it the End of the World??<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n“In God We Trust” Affirmed<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nWhat is Chrislam?<\/a><\/big>\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nMuslims Save Bible Store<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Just like the special effects from your favorite science-fiction movie,\u00a0Earth’s natural “deflector shields” held and the result was\u00a0merely a fascinating glow seen\u00a0as far south as\u00a0Arkansas, Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and North Carolina … but no worldwide disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Northern Lights over Alaska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Aurora Borealis occurs when energy particles from the sun are blocked by the earth\u2019s magnetic field. Though the particles were emitted from the sun on Saturday, they only hit earth\u2019s atmosphere Monday night, according to the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center.<\/p>\n

Geir \u00d8ye, a veteran observer of the Northern Lights from Norway told spaceweather.com that this particular aurora was very powerful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d \u00d8ye said. \u201cI can only imagine what the display must have been further north.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, here’s what the light show looked like in Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n