A dazzling green aurora swept through the skies above Utah on Sunday night, creating a brilliant ribbon of light above the state that could be seen from space.
A photo from the International Space Station shows the aurora as a halo of green haze above our planet, while dense clouds obscure most of the ground below. The photo was shared by NASA to Instagram.
"Cloudy with a chance of glow," the space agency said in their post. "An aurora dances in Earth's atmosphere as the International Space Station soared 260 miles (418 km) above Utah during orbital nighttime."
Auroras are an atmospheric phenomenon caused by solar storms on the surface of our sun. This solar activity sends out huge clouds of electrically charged particles into space, stretching over millions of miles.
"Energetic charged particles from these events are carried from the Sun by the solar wind," NASA said.
Some of these charged particles eventually collide with our planet. And while most of them are deflected by the strong magnetic shield surrounding the Earth, a small number end up being captured by the planet's magnetic field, funneling them towards the North and South Poles.
These particles then collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere and heat them up, ultimately causing them to glow. In other words, the aurora occurs when atoms and molecules in our own atmosphere smash into particles from the sun.
Brett Carter, an associate professor in space science at RMIT University of Australia, previously told Newsweek that the colors of the aurora result from the different gasses that make up our atmosphere.
"The different colors are the result of electrons relaxing from different energy levels from oxygen (the most common reds and greens) and nitrogen (dark reds/blues)," he said.
NASA's post has received hundreds of thousands of likes on social media along with hundreds of comments.
"The northern lights are so beautiful from up there," said one user.
"Best view," said another.
Unfortunately, while the crew at the ISS were treated to a spectacular cosmic light show, the sky was much less exciting for people down on Earth.
"Too many clouds too see the aurora this go around but we can 'see' it on satellite," the U.S. National Weather Service Salt Lake City Utah said in a Facebook post on Monday morning.
3:30 am 11/6 - Too many clouds too see the #Aurora this go around but we can 'see' it on satellite! Check out this awesome image from the Day/Night Band...
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Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
