The THEMIS Satellites were launched on February 17, 2007. Named after the Greek Titan Themis, the goddess of truth and natural order, the five satellites settled into orbit above Earth to study the planet's magnetic field, the energy surges that surround it (known as substorms) and the magnetic fields interaction with solar gusts of energy. Just as large thunderstorms on Earth's surface are often accompanied by rain and hail, large space stormsare often accompanied by substorms. THEMISs purpose is to predict powerful substorms.

As the THEMIS satellites orbited Earth, they transmitted back to the surface a chilling discovery. Their scientific instruments reported that there was a giant tear in the surface of Earth's protective magnetic shield. Scientists were aware that the shield may have a hole, but this was a chasm much larger than they had anticipated. Any breach would have allowed in solar particles, but when the satellites measured the depth of particles that had broken through the shield, they found it measured nearly 4,000 miles thickcreating a greater breach than previously hypothesized.

Aurora borealis are caused by charged
particles in the Earth's atmosphere
(DPA/Landov)A hole in the magnetic field means that, essentially, the shield that protects Earth from the onslaught of solar and other space storms is compromised. As science writer Larry Joseph described it, The Earths magnetic field protects us from blasts from the sun. Its job is to repel them and spin the blasts around so they dont hit the surface of the Earth. Its like, 'The shields are down, Scotty.' Theyre supposed to be up, but theyre down.

The Earth Is in Imminent Danger

With the planet's defenses lowered, the Earth is now more vulnerable than ever to a solar storm, like the Carrington Event of 1859. That solar attack was enough to partially cripple a society that had just begun to explore the use of electricity and mass communication. And now the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has warned us that the Earth is due for another massive solar hit in just a few years.

The NAS released a study entitled Severe Space Weather EventsUnderstanding Societal and Economic Impacts. Its catastrophic message: that the Earth is in imminent danger. The sun's coronal output comes in 11-year cycles and the NAS predicts that 2012 is when the next solar strike will hit. Whether this is precisely what the Maya were predicting in their end-of-days prophecy or whether it is merely a coincidence is immaterial. In 1994, a low-level solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting television and telephone signals. A solar storm of similar strength caused the HydroQuebec power grid in Canada to go down for more than nine hours; the resulting damages and loss of revenue were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The solar storm that the NAS has predicted for 2012 will be considerably stronger than those two, more on the scale of the Carrington Event.