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Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand
Explanation:
What's that in the sky?
An aurora.
A large
coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun earlier this month,
throwing a cloud of fast-moving electrons, protons, and ions
toward the Earth.
Part of this cloud impacted our Earth's
magnetosphere
and, bolstered by a sudden gap, resulted in
spectacular auroras being seen at some high northern latitudes.
Featured here is a particularly photogenic
auroral corona captured above a forest in
Sweden
from a scenic perch overlooking the city of
östersund.
To some,
this shimmering green
glow of
recombining atmospheric
oxygen
might appear like a large
whale, but feel free to
share what it looks like to you.
The unusually
quiet
Sun of the past few years has now passed.
As our Sun now approaches a
solar maximum in its
11-year solar magnetic
cycle,
dramatic auroras like
this are sure to continue.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: aurora
Publications with words: aurora
See also:
- APOD: 2025 January 7 Á A New Years Aurora and SAR Arc
- APOD: 2024 December 8 Á Aurora around Saturns North Pole
- APOD: 2024 October 16 Á Colorful Aurora over New Zealand
- APOD: 2024 October 13 Á Aurora Timelapse Over Italian Alps
- Northern Lights, West Virginia
- Aurora Australis and the International Space Station
- APOD: 2024 June 26 Á Timelapse: Aurora, SAR, and the Milky Way