|
Credit & Copyright: Marco Bastoni
Explanation:
What's that in the sky?
An aurora.
A large coronal hole opened last month, a few days before
this image was taken,
throwing a cloud of fast moving
electrons,
protons, and
ions toward the
Earth.
Some of this cloud impacted our
Earth's magnetosphere
and resulted in spectacular auroras being seen at high
northern latitudes.
Featured here is a particularly photogenic
auroral curtain captured above
TromsÜ
Norway.
To the astrophotographer, this
shimmering green glow of
recombining atmospheric
oxygen
appeared as a large
dragon, but feel free to
share what it
looks
like to you.
Although now past
Solar
Maximum,
our
Sun continues to
show occasional activity creating
impressive auroras on Earth
visible even last week.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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: 2024 January 14 Á Dragon Aurora over Iceland
- APOD: 2024 January 3 Á A SAR Arc from New Zealand
- APOD: 2023 December 12 Á Aurora and Milky Way over Norway
- The SAR and the Milky Way
- APOD: 2023 November 5 Á Creature Aurora Over Norway
- APOD: 2023 October 22 Á Ghost Aurora over Canada
- APOD: 2023 April 19 Á Auroral Storm over Lapland