Washington. In 2024, Earth was hit by a space-driven impact so powerful that it stunned the global scientific community. On the night of 10–11 May 2024, the “Mother’s Day Superstorm,” officially known as Superstorm Gannon, unleashed such extreme energy that Earth’s plasmasphere shrank to just one-fifth of its usual size. It turned out to be the most intense geomagnetic storm recorded in the past two decades.
Japan’s space agency JAXA’s Arase satellite happened to be positioned directly along the storm’s path at the perfect moment, enabling it to capture the complete impact of the superstorm in unprecedented detail. The data revealed that the plasmasphere contracted from 44,000 kilometers to only 9,600 kilometers—a rate of collapse never before documented.
According to scientists, this superstorm was triggered by a massive solar eruption that hurled billions of tons of charged particles toward Earth. These particles slammed into Earth’s magnetosphere, violently shaking it. Within just nine hours, the plasmasphere was compressed by nearly 80 percent, leaving Earth’s space-shield almost squeezed to its limits.
