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Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake
(Colorado
Mountain College)
Explanation:
Vivid
auroral displays
were triggered by a cloud of
high energy
particles from the Sun that collided with planet
Earth's
magnetosphere
yesterday, October 29, at about 06:30
Universal Time.
The collision was anticipated, following an
intense
solar flare
and coronal mass ejection detected on October 28, and many
anxious skywatchers were rewarded with an enjoyable light show.
While aurorae don't normally
haunt skies in the southern United
States, they were reported
from locations in Missouri, Texas,
New Mexico, and California in the early morning hours.
Near Yampa, Colorado astronomer Jimmy Westlake also spent
early yesterday morning enjoying the stormy
space weather.
He was impressed by this
colorful apparition of
the northern lights -- produced by excited
oxygen and nitrogen atoms interacting with energetic electrons
at altitudes of 100 kilometers or more.
Brighter stars shine through the extreme high-altitude
glow which shows much lower clouds
and the distant horizon in silhouette.
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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 - solar flare
Publications with words: aurora - solar flare
See also:
- 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
- APOD: 2024 June 12 Á Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains