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Credit & Copyright: Christophe Suarez
Explanation:
No, the car was not in danger of being vacuumed into space
by the big sky vortex.
For one reason, the vortex was really an
aurora, and since auroras are created by
particles striking the Earth from space, they do not create a
vacuum.
This rapidly
developing auroral display was caused by a
Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun that passed by the
Earth closely enough to cause a ripple in
Earth's magnetosphere.
The upper red parts of
the aurora occur over 250 kilometers high with its red
glow created by atmospheric atomic oxygen directly energized by incoming particles.
The lower green parts of the
aurora
occur over 100 kilometers high with its green
glow created by atmospheric
atomic oxygen energized indirectly by collisions with first-energized
molecular nitrogen.
Below 100 kilometers, there is little atomic oxygen,
which is why auroras end abruptly.
The concentric
cylinders depict a
dramatic
auroral
corona as seen from the side.
The featured image was created from a single 3-second exposure taken in mid-March
over
Lake Myvatn in
Iceland.
April is:
Global Astronomy Month
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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