The Northern Lights, a rare and magnificent natural phenomenon, is only witnessed by a select few lucky enough to experience the breathtaking display of dazzling colors in the sky caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with our atmosphere during intense solar winds.
The sight is even more mesmerizing when viewed from hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, as NASA astronaut Josh Cassada recently captured in a glorious new image taken from the International Space Station, showing the curvature of the planet at night and a greenish-turquoise haze covering the horizon.
In awe of this awe-inspiring vision, Cassada described it as “Absolutely unreal.”
As the Sun approaches the zenith of its 11-year cycle, the Northern Lights have become particularly visible, and coronal mass ejections triggered by solar winds have caused significant amounts of plasma to collide with our atmosphere.
Last week, a massive coronal mass ejection contributed to a powerful geomagnetic storm, leaving skywatchers in the northern UK amazed by the auroras. Social media is filled with stunning photos of the light spectacle over Stonehenge. One commercial airline pilot even made a 360-degree turn to allow passengers on both sides of the aircraft to witness the dazzling show off the coast of the Faroe Islands.
With the peak of its cycle expected around 2025, there will be plenty of opportunities to observe the Northern Lights in the coming years.
We eagerly anticipate the next awe-inspiring photos.