[aerohead]

This is a dated article:
* At 8:52 a.m., March 6, 1989, there was a large solar flare erupting.
* It was the 'biggest' since April 24, 1984.
* It was graded as a 'X-15'
* 100-billion-guadrillion ergs of energy ( all humans have used since time immemorial )
* The flare subsided within a 'few' hours.
* The parent sunspot continued with lesser flares for several days
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* An X-Ray and EM radiation pulse arrived in 8-minutes, 20-seconds, sweeping past Earth at the speed of light.
* Slightly behind, a second wave of near- relativistic, high-energy plasma mostly bypassed Earth.
* On March 8, at 1:30 p.m.,52.6-hours after the eruption, Earth was engulfed by a flare-induced shockwave in the solar wind, leading to a geomagnetic storm, Northern Lights, upper atmospheric heating.
* Low-orbiting Solar Maximum Mission Satellite lost almost 1-km of altitude.
* Solar Maximum and GOES weather satellite went offline.
* Both satellites fully recovered.
* Electric utility companies and satellite operators had 52-hours to plan open-circuits to protect their long-conductor grids at high latitudes, and power-down satellites.
* Nothing of note, at ground level was reported.