Because new technology has flourished since then, scientists could discover that some new systems are also at risk, said Jeffrey Hughes, director of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling at Boston University.

WSJ: Solar Flare: Sun Flare Leads to Solar Storm Reaching Earth

First introduced by Alan Guth of MIT in 1980 to explain (among other points) why the geometry of the universe appears to be flat and why matter is distributed so evenly throughout space, the theory also offered solid grounds for modeling how galaxies formed as the universe evolved.

FORBES: While Physicists Celebrate Higgs, Cosmologists Fret About The Big Bang Model