Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue. The Dog Years -- One. The First Swallow of Summer -- Two. Herschel's Grand Absurdity -- Three. The Magnetic Crusade -- Four. The Solar Lockstep -- Five. The Day and Night Observatory -- Six. The Perfect Solar Storm -- Seven. In the Grip of the Sun -- Eight. The Greatest Prize of All -- Nine. Death at the Devil's Jumps -- Ten. The Sun's Librarian -- Eleven. New Flare, New Storm, New Understanding -- Twelve. The Waiting Game -- Thirteen. The Cloud Chamber -- Epilogue. Magnetar Spring -- Bibliography -- Index

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.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Feb 2020).

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