New Delhi, July 16 -- Astronomers have unveiled the intricate tale behind a series of powerful solar eruptions called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), that resulted in rare northern lights dancing across Ladakh's night skies in May 2024, uncovering a solar storm unlike any seen in the past 20 years, a press release from Ministry of Science and Technology said.

CMEs are massive ejections of magnetised plasma from the Sun's corona. When such solar blasts are directed toward the Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms capable of disrupting satellite operations, communication systems and power grids.

The great geomagnetic storm that started on May 10, 2024, was linked to a rare sequence of six different CMEs erupting in succession, associate...