Aditya-L1 solves mystery of a major solar storm in 2024
India's Aditya-L1 mission, teaming up with NASA, has figured out what caused Gannon's Storm—a powerful solar storm that hit Earth on May 10, 2024.
The findings just made it into Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Two colliding coronal mass ejections supercharged the storm
Turns out, two huge bursts of solar material (called coronal mass ejections) smashed into each other on their way to Earth.
This collision triggered a rare magnetic event that supercharged the storm far beyond what scientists expected.
Aditya-L1 also mapped largest ever seen solar reconnection area
Aditya-L1's magnetometer mapped a reconnection area stretching 1.3 million kilometers—about 100 times Earth's diameter—the largest ever seen inside one of these solar eruptions.
Better space weather predictions can save satellites, power grids
Cracking this mystery means we can better predict and prepare for future space weather, which matters for keeping satellites, power grids, and communications safe—especially with more big storms likely as the current solar cycle peaks.