Scientists are preparing for a solar storm that could break communications for years and potentially put life on Earth in danger.

Many people are still unconcerned or even unaware of the possibility of a geomagnetic storm coming from the sun that could cause huge damage to life on Earth. But such a possibility is referred to as a “low probability but high-impact event” that is being planned for by agencies including the US Department of Homeland Security and Nasa, and scientists have warned that humanity needs to do more to deal with it.

Space weather has previously caused some problems, lightly disrupting technology and leading to visible changes. But none recently have been as dramatic as the infamous Carrington Event of 1859, which caused one of the worst known geomagnetic storms and would throw off much communications technology if it happened today.

If such an event were to hit the Earth, it could stop communications satellites from working, break GPS systems and stop planes from flying. It could also lead to even more lasting problems, like wiping out data from computers’ memory.

Its effects could last for months or even years, as authorities wold have to work to repair the infrastructure that the modern world relies on. Estimates from Lloyd’s of London suggest that fixing all of the problems could cost between $600 billion and $2.6 trillion.

The most surprising facts about the sun Show all 8 1 /8 The most surprising facts about the sun The most surprising facts about the sun An Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence The sun makes up 99.8 per cent of the mass of the entire solar system. The sun’s core, although it only makes up around 2 percent of the sun's volume, holds nearly half of its mass NASA/European Space Agency The most surprising facts about the sun The quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun. The sun is travelling at 220 kilometres per second. It takes the 225-250 million years to complete an orbit of the centre of the Milky Way NASA/SDO The most surprising facts about the sun Bright, glowing arcs of gas flow around sunspots The sun’s magnetic fields generate solar wind - streams of charged particles, which travel through the solar system at 450 kilometres per second. The winds cause radio interference, the northern lights and tails on comets, as well as alter the trajectory of space crafts Goddard Space Flight Center The most surprising facts about the sun A huge X-class solar flare burst from a large, active sunspot As the sun has no solid body - it is made up of 92.1 percent hydrogen and 7.8 percent helium - different parts of the sun rotate at different rates. At the equator, the sun spins once about every 25 days, but at its poles the sun rotates once on its axis every 36 Earth days NASA/SDO The most surprising facts about the sun Hot coronal loops which span 30 or more times the diameter of planet Earth extend above the visible surface of the Sun One day, the sun will be about the size of Earth. After its red giant phase - when the sun would have expanded, consuming Mercury, Venus and Earth - the sun will collapse, retaining its enormous mass, but shrinking to the approximate volume of our planet to become a white dwarf. It is currently categorised as a yellow dwarf and at 4.5 billion years old is currently middle aged NASA The most surprising facts about the sun A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun. False colors trace different gas temperatures A complex internal mechanism about which little is known causes the reverse in polarity NASA The most surprising facts about the sun The size of the Earth in comparison to the sun With a circumference of 2,715,395.6 miles, one million Earths could fit inside the sun. | 8. The temperature at the sun's core is about 15 million °C while its surface temperature is 5500 °C NASA The most surprising facts about the sun Combined ultra violet images of different temperatures of the sun Sunspots - visible dark patches that appear on the sun’s surface - are temporary phenomena whereby intense magnetic activity form areas of reduced surface temperature. | 10. Solar flares shoot out from the sun’s surface during when magnetic energy is released by the during magnetic storms. They are the most violent eruptions in the solar system NASA/SDO

Now the US government is looking to work more seriously to stem some of those effects — including getting better at predicting space weather and dealing with problems it would cause.

"We know there is a gap in our ability to assess vulnerability and consequences," said Jack Anderson, a senior analyst for the US Department for Homeland Security, at a conference held to plan for the “big one” in storm events.

At the moment, scientists are unable to predict how issues would pan out as they knock on to each other. "Once systems start to fail, (the outages) could cascade in ways we can't even conceive," said Daniel Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, at the same event.

But the US government is at a “fundamental turning point” in addressing the problems, according to Tamara Dickinson, a senior staff member at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.