When seen from Earth, the Northern Lights are nothing short of dazzling. But it takes an astronaut’s perspective to truly appreciate how vast and magnificent these light shows are.
“Absolutely unrealistic,” NASA astronaut Josh Cassada said chirp (Opens in a new tab) 28 February Along with a gorgeous image of the green aurora borealis swirling around Earth’s far northern latitudes. Casada took the image from the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth on average.
While the ethereal green glow will look familiar to anyone who has seen the Twilight in pictures Or in person, Cassada’s unique viewpoint reveals how incredibly remote this phenomenon is, stretching for hundreds to thousands of miles around the planet’s poles.
Auroras, also known as northern lights When seen in the Northern Hemisphere, they occur when charged particles emitted from the Sun collide with various particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. Solar particles ionize those molecules, or remove electrons from them, causing the molecules to glow. The ionized oxygen molecules emit the fluorescent green light we mostly see from the aurorae; Nitrogen molecules emit red or pink light, while hydrogen and helium molecules emit blue and purple light, according to Canadian Space Agency (Opens in a new tab).
This phenomenon is seen most often at high latitudes, where charged solar particles tend to converge along Earth’s magnetic field lines, which end at the north and south poles. However, when an exceptionally large mass of plasma is emitted from the Sun called a Coronal mass ejection (CME) our way, that could lead to larger and more diffuse aurorae appearing at much lower latitudes than normal.
The sun has been particularly moody lately, as two CMEs collided with our planet on February 26 and February 27, according to sister site Live Science. Space.com (Opens in a new tab). This sudden influx of charged particles likely fueled the vast aurorae that Casada saw from space.
It’s getting more and more popular as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, which is currently estimated to occur in 2025. Solar activity has ramped up dramatically in the past several months, with Strong solar flares It erupts from the surface of our star every few days. They are harmless to humans, for the most part. But huge, exceptionally powerful ballistic missiles can damage satellites, cause radio outages, and even cause malfunctions in Earth’s power grid. Scientists constantly monitor the sun for signs of such eruptions. Sometimes, they see a The sun smiles back.
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