February 16, 2026
Solar flare face reveal
Richard Carrington's first portrait has been found
Internet sees Carrington’s face—and starts prepping for the sequel
TLDR: Archivists found the first known photo of Richard Carrington, the astronomer behind the 1859 mega–solar storm. The internet split between hype and worry: preppers dusted off Faraday cages while skeptics called it a cool history find, debating whether a modern rerun would torch today’s tech or just trend on memes.
The face behind the biggest solar tantrum in history just dropped, and the comments went full doomsday-meets-meme. Archivists finally uncovered a photo of Richard Carrington, the 19th-century astronomer who spotted the first-ever solar flare before the 1859 “Carrington Event”—when telegraph operators got shocked, offices sparked, and auroras glowed as far south as Panama. Cue the community: one crowd is asking when round two hits, another is joking about unplugged telegraphs sending ghost texts, and the prepper squad is flexing their “Faraday cage season” energy. Meanwhile, history nerds are cheering assistant archivist Kate Bond for tracking down the portrait via an old-timey photography club at Maull & Polyblank, after years of dead ends and even a Lord Kelvin mix-up.
Drama level? High. Some users warn that a modern repeat could smack our tech—think GPS, internet, and power grids—while others roll their eyes at apocalypse talk, calling it “cool history, not panic fodder.” Either way, the vibe is clear: seeing Carrington’s actual face makes the legend feel real. People are swapping links to NOAA and the Royal Astronomical Society, imagining 1859’s chaos in smartphone terms, and posting “sun, please don’t” memes. It’s half science fair, half survivalist TikTok, and all comment-section theater.
Key Points
- •Archivist Kate Bond at the Royal Astronomical Society identified the first known photograph of Richard Carrington.
- •Carrington observed the first recorded solar flare in 1859 and linked it to the geomagnetic storm that followed about 17 hours later.
- •The 1859 Carrington Event caused telegraph shocks, fires, and auroras visible as far south as Panama, and remains the most intense geomagnetic storm recorded.
- •Evidence for the portrait’s existence stems from Carrington’s membership in the Literary and Scientific Portrait Club, which required photos at Maull & Polyblank in London.
- •Prior searches had failed and sometimes misattributed an image of Lord Kelvin; archival records at the National Portrait Gallery list Carrington among club members.