While last week's stunning auroras delighted many people around Australia, the solar storm that created them was not on the same level as one that happened last year.

The biggest solar storm of the past two decades, known as the Gannon or Mother's Day storm, lit up the sky in May 2024.

Not only did it dazzle the world for three days, it squeezed a layer of charged particles surrounding our planet known as the plasmasphere to a fifth of its size, according to a new study.

The light show that dazzled the world

From Australia to the US — the dazzling lights of the aurora australis and borealis were captured in each hemisphere in a massive solar storm in May 2024.

The study, published in Earth, Planets and Space , analysed data from the plasmasphere using Japan's ARASE satellite, as w

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