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Credit & Copyright: Hallgrimur P. Helgason;
Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation:
All of the other aurora watchers had gone home.
By 3:30 am in
Iceland,
on a quiet night last September,
much of that night's auroras had died down.
Suddenly though, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the
Earth's atmosphere once again.
This time, unexpectedly,
pareidoliacally,
they created an
amazing
shape reminiscent of a giant
phoenix.
With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately
by a third of the land.
The mountain in the background is
Helgafell,
while the small foreground river is called KaldÀ, both located about 30 kilometers
north of Iceland's capital
Reykjavik.
Seasoned
skywatchers
will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the
constellation of Orion, while the
Pleiades
star cluster is
also visible just above the frame center.
The new aurora
lasted only a minute and would be gone forever -- possibly dismissed as an
embellished aberration -- were
it not captured in the
featured,
digitally-composed, image mosaic.
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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 borealis
Publications with words: aurora borealis
See also: