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Now, a team of scientists have discovered that this burst caused a measurable change in the number of ionized particles found in Earth’s upper atmosphere, including ozone molecules, which readily absorb harmful solar radiation.

The discovery, reported Tuesday in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrates how even explosions that occur far from our solar system can influence the atmosphere, which can be used as a giant detector for extreme cosmic phenomena.

They identified a sharp jump in the electric field at the top of the ionosphere, which they correlated to the gamma ray burst signal measured by the European Space Agency’s International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, a mission that launched in 2002 to observe radiation from faraway celestial objects.

The researchers found that the electric field rose by a factor of 60 as gamma rays ionized (essentially knocking away electrons from) ozone and nitrogen molecules high in the atmosphere.

But this is the first time scientists have proved that cosmic explosions like this can affect the entire ionosphere, according to Laura Hayes, a solar physicist at the European Space Agency who was not involved in the study.

In this case, part of the shield that protects Earth from the formidable dangers of space was restored, keeping the planet and its inhabitants safe awhile longer from the deadly radiation the sun would otherwise send our way.

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