The world's worst solar storm struck about 14,000 years ago, much stronger than the 775 AD event

Amazing stuff! Unfortunately the article does not say e.g. how these solar storms affect life on earth.

What if changes in solar activity cause warming and cooling periods (aka climate change) on earth and not a life-essential, atmospheric trace gas like CO2?

These so called Miyake events were not even discovered before 2012. This suggests there might be more of these events to be discovered.

"A study ... has uncovered evidence of an extreme ancient solar storm that struck Earth over 14,000 years ago, during the waning days of the last Ice Age. This event is now confirmed as the most powerful solar particle storm on record, exceeding the infamous 775 CE storm that was long considered the strongest. ...

These unusual spikes of isotopes that can be captured in tree rings are known as Miyake events. ...

Although several Miyake events have been traced back to 994 CE, 663 BCE, 5259 BCE, and 7176 BCE, none surpassed the severity of the 775 CE spike. In 2023, researchers discovered a 40% spike in radiocarbon in a fossilized tree ring corresponding to 14,000 BCE, but the existing models could not quantify the event’s intensity under ancient glacial climatic conditions. ..."

"... “Compared to the largest event of the modern satellite era — the 2005 particle storm — the ancient 12350 BC event was over 500 times more intense, according to our estimates”, says Dr. Golubenko.

Other large known solar particle storms have occurred around 994 AD, 663 BC, 5259 BC and 7176 BC, and a few other candidates are under investigation. The new model was also verified using wood samples recently found in the French Alps, dating back some 14,300 years. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• A new generation model of atmospheric radiocarbon transport is developed, which applies to spikes of C for different climatic and geomagnetic conditions.

• The only known extreme solar proton event beyond the Holocene (ca. 12350 BC) is analysed with this model and shown to be the strongest solar event known so far.

• The model was successfully tested in application to a well-studied event of 775 AD.

Abstract

The Sun rarely produced extreme solar particle events (ESPEs), orders of magnitude stronger than everything directly observed. Their enormous power can greatly distort the production of cosmogenic isotopes, e.g., radiocarbon 14C, in the terrestrial system, leaving clear signatures in natural terrestrial archives including dateable tree rings.

Eight such events were known to occur during the past 12 millennia of the Holocene, with the strongest one being that of 775 AD.

Recently, a new and the only ESPE candidate beyond the Holocene has been discovered as the largest known 14C peak dated to ca. 12350 BC, nearly twice as big as that of 775 AD. However, it could not be analysed earlier due to the lack of appropriate models applicable to glacial climate conditions.

We have developed a brand-new state-of-the-art chemistry-climate model SOCOL:14C-Ex to study fast changes in 14C. It was tested on the well-studied event of 775 AD and applied to the ESPE of 12350 BC. We found that it was stronger by 18±11% than by 775 AD and likely occurred between January – April 12350 BC with the most probable date in early March. This makes the ESPE of 12350 BC the record strongest known event, pushing the bounds of the extreme solar-terrestrial events even further, forming the new worst-case scenario paradigm and providing the global tie point for dendrochronological dating before the Holocene. The newly developed model lifts the existing limitation to the Holocene and extends our ability to analyse radiocarbon data even for glacial climate conditions."

Ancient solar storm 18 percent stronger than 775 AD event

The most extreme solar storm hit Earth in 12,350 BC, scientists identify (press release) "New research uncovers the strongest solar event ever detected — rewriting our understanding of space weather and radiocarbon dating."

New SOCOL:14C-Ex model reveals that the Late-Glacial radiocarbon spike in 12350 BC was caused by the record-strong extreme solar storm

Graphical abstract

The heart is one of the brain's timekeepers

Amazing stuff!

"They found that our momentary perception of time is not continuous but may stretch or shrink with each heartbeat.

The research builds evidence that the heart is one of the brain’s important timekeepers and plays a fundamental role in our sense of time passing – an idea contemplated since ancient times ...

The team harnessed that variability in a novel experiment. Forty-five study participants – ages 18 to 21, with no history of heart trouble – were monitored with electrocardiography, or ECG, measuring heart electrical activity at millisecond resolution. The ECG was linked to a computer, which enabled brief tones lasting 80-180 milliseconds to be triggered by heartbeats. Study participants reported whether tones were longer or shorter relative to others.

The results revealed what the researchers called “temporal wrinkles.” When the heartbeat preceding a tone was shorter, the tone was perceived as longer. When the preceding heartbeat was longer, the sound’s duration seemed shorter. ..."

From the abstract:

"The role of the heart in the experience of time has been long theorized but empirical evidence is scarce. Here, we examined the interaction between fine-grained cardiac dynamics and the momentary experience of subsecond intervals. Participants performed a temporal bisection task for brief tones (80–188 ms) synchronized with the heart. We developed a cardiac Drift-Diffusion Model (cDDM) that embedded contemporaneous heart rate dynamics into the temporal decision model. Results revealed the existence of temporal wrinkles—dilation or contraction of short intervals—in synchrony with cardiac dynamics. A lower prestimulus heart rate was associated with an initial bias in encoding the millisecond-level stimulus duration as longer, consistent with facilitation of sensory intake. Concurrently, a higher prestimulus heart rate aided more consistent and faster temporal judgments through more efficient evidence accumulation. Additionally, a higher speed of poststimulus cardiac deceleration, a bodily marker of attention, was associated with a greater accumulation of sensory temporal evidence in the cDDM. These findings suggest a unique role of cardiac dynamics in the momentary experience of time. Our cDDM framework opens a new methodological avenue for investigating the role of the heart in time perception and perceptual judgment."

‘Wrinkles’ in time experience linked to heartbeat | Cornell Chronicle

Wrinkles in subsecond time perception are synchronized to the heart (open access)

FIGURE 1 Two views on the impact of heart rate on the brain and behavior.