一支国际研究团队解决了一个跨越178年的历史谜团。1871年发表于《自然》杂志的埃克塞特列车延误事件记录存在时间错误——原报告标注的日期为1841年10月18日，但埃克塞特至斯塔克罗斯铁路线直到1846年才开通，这一5年的时间差暴露了记录的矛盾之处1。通过对铁路时刻表、报纸记载、太阳活动观测和地磁场数据的对比分析，研究人员确认该事件实际发生于1848年10月18日1。列车延误时间为16分钟，计划发车时间为晚上10:051。
这次延误由太阳活动引发的地磁扰动导致电报系统故障所致1。此前1859年的卡林顿事件被公认为最著名的太阳风暴影响技术的案例，但早期事件的证据可追溯更久远1。目前已确认的最早有文献记载的空间天气影响技术事件是1847年3月英国中部铁路的电报干扰1。
该研究由兰卡斯特大学、墨尔本皇家理工大学、英国地质调查局、加拿大自然资源部、贝勒大学和英国RAL Space等机构合作完成，成果发表于美国地球物理学联盟期刊《空间天气》1。
An international research team has resolved a long-standing historical discrepancy surrounding a train delay attributed to a solar storm, establishing that the incident actually occurred on October 18, 1848—not 1841 as previously reported in an 1871 Nature article 1. The correction reveals a timeline inconsistency: the Exeter to Starcross railway line did not open until 1846, making the originally documented 1841 date impossible 1.
By cross-referencing historical railway timetables, newspaper records, solar activity observations, and geomagnetic field measurements, researchers confirmed that the 16-minute delay resulted from telegraph system failures triggered by geomagnetic disturbances caused by solar activity 1. The train was scheduled to depart at 10:05 p.m. that evening 1. This finding repositions early space weather impacts on technology; while the 1859 Carrington Event remains the most well-known documented case of solar storms disrupting technological systems, an earlier telegraph interference incident at England's Midland Railway in March 1847 is now recognized as the earliest recorded example of space weather affecting infrastructure 1.
The research was published in the American Geophysical Union journal Space Weather in 2026 by scientists from Lancaster University, RMIT University Melbourne, the British Geological Survey, Canada's Natural Resources Department, Baylor University, and RAL Space 1.
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