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Solar Storm

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December 10, 2025

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance | Science & Technology

Why in News?

India’s Aditya-L1, along with 6 U.S. satellites has revealed why the May 2024 solar storm also known as Gannon’s storm behaved so unusually.

The 6 U.S. satellites are NASA’s Wind, ACE, THEMIS-C, STEREO-A, MMS, and NASA-NOAA joint mission DSCOVR.

  • Solar Storm – It is a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and material blasted into the solar system by the Sun.
  • Causes – The Sun’s magnetic fields get twisted, like messy hair.
  • Because the Sun’s equator spins faster than its poles, the fields twist even more.
  • When they get too stretched, they snap and reconnect (called magnetic reconnection), releasing huge bursts of energy — this is how solar storms start.
  • Induce any or all the events – solar flare (bright flash of light), radiation storm (flurry of solar particles propelled into space at high speeds) and coronal mass ejection.
  • Effects – Solar storms can shake up Earth’s magnetic field, causing geomagnetic storms.
  • It may lead to radio blackouts, power cuts, and bright auroras in the sky.
  • But they don’t directly harm people because Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere protect us.

Quick Fact

Reasons for 2024’s unusual solar storm
  • Scientists noticed something unusual – 2 CMEs (coronal mass ejections) collided in space, squeezing each other so tightly that their magnetic fields snapped and reconnected.
  • This process flipped the CME’s magnetic field and made the storm’s impact much stronger than expected.

Key Discoveries

  • The reconnection region inside the CME was enormous — about 1.3 million km across (nearly 100 times Earth’s size).
  • 1st time such a giant magnetic breakup and rejoining was ever seen inside a CME.
  • Satellites also noticed particles suddenly speeding up, proving the reconnection happened.

To know about Aditya L1, click here

References

  1. The Hindu | Global effort reveals why the 2024 solar storm unusual
  2. NASA | Solar Strom
5 comments
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low tool 2 hours

Fascinating insights into the recent solar storm! It's incredible how a seemingly distant event can have such tangible effects on our technology. This post really clarifies the science behind it. Makes me want to look into the data behind these phenomena more closely; perhaps Change Image Quality could be used to visualize some of the raw data from these missions for better understanding.

Dalila 30 days

The discovery highlights solar storm complexity, showcases global satellite collaboration, and improves understanding of space weather impacts on Earth’s technology.
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we become what we behold  is an immersive game that lets you explore the profound impact of media on people's daily consciousness in a short amount of time.  henry stickmin News stories stimulate thinking and drive people to follow those news stories. Quite dangerous!

crossy road 1 month

This explanation clearly links Aditya-L1’s findings to fundamental solar physics, highlighting how rare CME collisions and magnetic reconnection intensified the 2024 storm, improving understanding of space weather risks. crossy road

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