Spurred on by gloriously dark skies, with spectacular views of the Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy, Scorpio, Draco and our other celestial friends, it's been hard to stay indoors after dark.
Add to that the total thrill this week of the Northern Lights display... and Wow! I heard the kind of oohs and aahs usually reserved for fireworks displays. Lots of kids (and adults) commenting "I've NEVER seen anything like this!"
So true. There was a low level of activity constant along the northern skyline. Folks sometimes mistake this for 'city glow', but there's nothing to the north that can make that kind of shine up here. When the lights began to lift in long vivid searchlights, it got exciting. It's possible to go a hundred years without a good display of northern lights that can be seen south of the arctic circle. So we are told... so it's great that we got to see them.
What causes these dancing sky lights? Well, essentially, Earth just got hit by a solar flare. A storm on the sun causes huge bursts of energy to leave the sun and head out through our solar system. This solar wind launched by the sun contains clouds of plasma, full of charged particles that include electrons and positive ions. When they reach the Earth, they interact with the Earth's magnetic field, exciting oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's upper atmosphere. We can thank our magnetic field and the atmosphere of the Earth for deflecting the power of the solar flares, otherwise we'd be getting a little too up close and personal to those charged particles.
As it is, we can stand, sit, or lie on the lawn (we did all three) and just enjoy the show.
Coming up next? Perseid Meteor Shower, coming soon to a sky near you, on August 12. You should be here!
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