In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed in a gigantic cloud
of seething gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet from
the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed,
machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators
unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled as if
struck by a massive magnetic fist. For the first time, people began to
suspect that the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the universe.
However, nobody knew what could have released such strange forces upon
the Earth--nobody, that is, except the amateur English astronomer
Richard Carrington.
In this riveting account, Stuart Clark tells for the first time the full
story behind Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the
surface of the Sun and how his brilliant insight--that the Sun's
magnetism directly influences the Earth--helped to usher in the modern
era of astronomy. Clark vividly brings to life the scientists who
roundly rejected the significance of Carrington's discovery of solar
flares, as well as those who took up his struggle to prove the notion
that the Earth could be touched by influences from space. Clark also
reveals new details about the sordid scandal that destroyed Carrington's
reputation and led him from the highest echelons of science to the very
lowest reaches of love, villainy, and revenge.
The Sun Kings transports us back to Victorian England, into the very
heart of the great nineteenth-century scientific controversy about the
Sun's hidden influence over our planet.
