Solar flares are quite common. Many days the sun throws out a number of different solar flares in all directions. Most are of no interest to anyone but astronomers. They aren't dangerous. In fact, the worst solar flare followed by a coronal mass ejection in history (The Carrington Event) really didn't even have much of an effect on the entire planet other than a couple fires and a lot of pretty colors.
That was then, this is now.
Most of the time, earth has days to react to a solar flare because there are astronomers out there watching and recording the sun 24 hours a day. But what if there were a solar flare larger than the Carrington Event? And what if that solar storm made a direct hit on the planet, before anyone had time to prepare? Could humans survive? Could the planet itself survive?
