Space Weather and the Course of History

​Often when we think of space we think of “out there.” The wonders beyond. But out there includes us!

​Let’s talk about the weather. On Earth it can delight or disrupt. A balmy summer evening that lingers in the memory.
An outdoor wedding cast into chaos by an unexpected downpour. Our planet’s weather can, of course, also bring calamity. Hurricanes uproot whole communities, tornadoes ravage entire towns, lightning sparks forest fires.

​But beyond the boundaries of our blue dot, storms also roil the cosmos. Our solar system is a dynamic arena where asteroids careen off course and solar winds hurl charged particles across billions of miles of space. And this space weather doesn’t just put a damper on our plans–it changes the course of history.

​It’s an incredible, long-hidden reality. Environmental change in our solar system and throughout the cosmos has shaped 500 years of human civilization and the history of our planet before humans ever appeared. 

Panelists:

Amanda Gefter is a regular contributor to Nautilus. Her Nautilus articles, including “The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic” and “What Plants are Saying About Us” have won numerous science-writing awards. Her feature “Finding Peter Putnam,” told the story of a genius forgotten by history.She is also the author of Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn. 

Dagomar Degroot is a professor of environmental history at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. An expert on climate change, space exploration, and existential risk, Degroot’s work has been published in major scientific and historical journals and popular outlets. He is a senior columnist at Science Politics, and his latest book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean, published in October 2025, was named a best book of the year by Scientific American, New Scientist, and Nautilus. Degroot also hosts the long-running, award winning podcast “The Climate Chronicles.”