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Credit & Copyright: Stan Richard
Explanation:
Early last Sunday morning stars were not the only lights in Iowa
skies.
The northern lights also shone from the heavens, extending
across the midwestern USA and
other locations not often
graced with auroral displays.
The wide-ranging auroral activity was triggered as a
coronal
mass ejection - an
energetic cloud of particles blasted outward from
the
Sun a few days earlier - collided with
planet Earth's magnetosphere.
Alerted to conditions
ripe
for aurora, photographer Stan Richard
recorded this aparition over Saylorville Lake, near
Des Moines.
Bright planet Mars in the constellation
Aquarius is above the
horizon near the center of the eastward-looking view.
While the colorful rays seem to end just above the water, they are
actually at altitudes of 100 kilometers
or more.
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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 - coronal mass ejection
Publications with words: aurora - coronal mass ejection
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