Aurora spotting in Kendal, northern England, May 10, 2024.
Stop Press Media/Alamy
The aurora was noticeable with the naked eye – but was spectacular through a camera lens.
Aurora visible from Cope Cope, Victoria on May 11 2024.
cafuego/Flickr
Australians were in for a Mother’s Day treat as auroras swept the skies. But there was little warning, and the spectacle didn’t repeat.
AP Photo/Kyle Green
The electric rainbow of the aurora happens when excited atoms relax via ‘forbidden transitions’.
A coronal mass ejection on the solar surface.
(NASA/GSFC/SDO)
We’re currently a few years into the 25th studied solar cycle. An 11-year period of sun activity, this solar cycle is more active than previously expected.
Lightscape / Unsplash
The aurora is one of nature’s most spectacular sights, a dazzling glow in the upper atmosphere driven by space weather.
The northern lights seen in the south of the UK weren’t quite as vivid as the kind of displays seen closer to the polar regions.
basiczto/Shutterstock
People expect to brave brutally cold landscapes if they want to catch sight of the aurora borealis. So people were stunned to see the ethereal light display as far south as Cornwall.
The Sun occasionally ejects large amounts of energy and particles into space that can smash into Earth.
NASA/GSFC/SDO via WikimediaCommons
Space weather can affect satellites in a number of different ways, from frying electronics to increasing drag in the atmosphere.
PhotoVisions/Shutterstock
It’s often said that the aurora, or the northern lights, is caused by ‘particles from the Sun’. But in reality things are more complicated.
The Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, reflected in the water.
(Shutterstock)
A curious kid asks: Why are the northern lights only spotted at areas around the poles?
John A Davis/Shutterstock
Depending on who you ask, the northern lights may, very occasionally, sound like ‘rustling silk’ or ‘two planks meeting flat ways’.
Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind, guiding the solar particles to the polar regions.
SOHO (ESA & NASA)
When solar particles reach the Earth, they not only produce spectacular auroras but also contribute to the chemical reactions leading to ozone depletion, which in turn influences climate patterns.
A magical sight.
Ronel Reyes/Flickr.
The northern lights might look like magic, but they can actually be explained by science – here’s how.
A coronal mass ejection erupts from the sun in 2012.
NASA
The wired Earth of the 21st century is at the mercy of the volatile nature of the sun.
A huge solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun on Sept. 6, 2017. A separate image of the Earth provides scale.
NASA/GSFC/SDO
At a time in the sun’s cycle when space weather experts expect less solar activity, our star is going bonkers with solar flares and coronal mass ejections. What effects will Earth feel?
The aurora Steve.
Rémi Farvacque/Alberta Aurora Chasers (facebook)
Scientists still don’t know what caused the mysterious phenomenon ‘Steve’.
Truly spectacular.
Moyan Brenn/flickr
Historical records can help us understand what will happen to the northern lights.
Nighttime panorama showing Pakistan’s Indus River valley, taken from space. The green band above the horizon is airglow.
NASA Earth Observatory
Here’s how to tell airglow from northern lights.
NASA
New research solves enigma of strange hotspots in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Aalto University
Recent Martian findings are just the latest discoveries of aurora on other planets, both in and out of our solar system.
Launching a space balloon in Sweden.
Alexa Halford
Geomagnetic storms can interact with particles near Earth, causing issues for satellites and other tech. Researchers send balloons 20 miles into the sky to figure out just what’s going on up there.