New research has pinpointed the exact date when the strongest ever solar particle storm hit the Earth.

This identification of the event, which occurred in 12,350 B.C., rewrites what scientists considered possible when it comes to extreme space weather.

"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," said paper author and physicist Kseniia Golubenko of Finland's University of Oulu in a statement.

At the core of this discovery is SOCOL:14C-Ex, a novel chemistry–climate model developed by Golubenko and fellow Oulu astrophysicist professor Ilya Usoskin.

Designed to reconstruct solar particle events under ancient glacial climate conditions, the model allowed the intern

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