Rumors of dangerous cosmic rays passing by Earth “tonight,” largely identical in their phrasing, have been steadily collecting in our inbox for well over a year. The warning, which has been around since at least 2014, and whose timelessness is assured by the lack of specific dates or a discussion of time zones, is generally phrased as such:
“VERY URGENT! Tonight at 00:30 to 03:30am make sure to turn off your phone, cellular, tablet etc & put far away from your body! Singapore TV announced on the news! Please tell your family & friends! Tonight 12:30pm to 3:30am for our Planet will be very high radiation! Cosmic rays will pass close to Earth, So please turn off your cell phone! Do not leave your device close to your body, it can cause you terrible damage! Check Google & NASA BBC News! Send this message to all the people who matter to you! Thank you.”
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (among other agencies) constantly monitor the sun for events that would eject solar particles in the direction of Earth. They do this not because of the health risk they pose to humans (unless you are an astronaut in space) but because of the risk they can pose to electrical grids and devices, as described by NASA
