Our Sun can sometimes get angry and blast out planet with billions of tons of hot ionized plasma.  It’s called a Coronal Mass Ejection, CME.  In 1998 an enormous CME impacted the Earth causing a satellite to go down over the middle of the US.   That satellite was carrying pager signals for almost everyone in the US.   As a result, doctors and nurses didn’t get pages about their patients.  Anyone that was expecting a page didn’t get it, and that had a huge impact on our society.  Large electrical utility systems can get hit with huge power surges.   High voltage transmission lines running north south can pick up a lot of extra current in them.  Power companies are very aware of this.  Long steel pipelines are at risk.  In 1989, Quebec was hit by a CME and millions of people lost power.  This was contributed to a small Solar Geomagnetic Storm.   This is a serious problem for modern technologies.  The Sun is capable of a whole lot worse than anyone has ever seen.  In 1959, sunlight intensity doubled and 17 hours later Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights, were seen as far south as Hawaii, Havana and Hong Kong.   The Aurora Borealis carried very intense current that flowed in the Ionosphere, and these currents induced electrical currents on the surface of the Earth.  Telegraph stations across America and Europe caught fire.  Several building burned to the ground.  People received shocks.   Our technology is much more advanced now then in 1859, and at the same time our technology is more vulnerable to a solar storm of this magnitude.   Satellites would be damaged disrupting communications.  One can only envision what would happen if the 1859 event accrued today.