After a solar storm ripped a hole in the planet's magnetic field, an explosion of pink Auroras lit up the night sky above Norway. The bright lights were caused by the solar particles penetrating deeper into the atmosphere than normal.
A tour group led by a northern lights tour guide saw the light show. Varik told Live Science that the Auroras lasted for 2 minutes.
"These were the strongest pink auroras I have seen in a long time," said Varik. It was a big deal.
The pink Auroras emerged after a small crack appeared in the magnetosphere, an invisible magnetic field surrounding Earth. According to Spaceweather.com, there was a minor G-1 class solar storm that hit Earth in November.
There is a new tab on this topic.
The image is the first of three.
Streams of charged particles called solar wind pass around the magnetosphere and form the Aurora. The shield at the North and South Poles is weak enough to allow the solar wind to skim through the atmosphere, which is usually between 100 and 300 kilometers above the surface. According to NASA, when solar particles pass through the atmosphere, they superheat gases, which light up in the night sky.
Oxygen atoms in the part of the atmosphere that solar wind normally reaches emit a hue when they are excited. The solar wind was able to penetrate below 62 miles due to the crack in Earth's magnetosphere. The Auroras gave off a neon pink glow as the particles smashed into Nitrogen atoms.
The crack in Earth's magnetosphere helped to create strong green Auroras.
The hole closed after six hours. There was a blue light in the sky above Sweden for around 30 minutes.
Experts don't know if the phenomenon was caused by the compromised magnetosphere or if it was something else. According to Spaceweather.com, one expert said that the ribbon could have been made up of frozen fuel from a Russian rocket, but no rockets were seen in the area.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
