Shimmering curtains of light adorn the night sky over Alaska. Known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, these displays are created when charged particles from the sun interact with gases in Earth's atmosphere.
Sun Storm to Cause Stunning Auroras—Here’s How to Watch
A gust of solar wind is lashing Earth, possibly triggering glorious light shows in the coming nights.
Sky-watchers should keep their eyes turned toward the poles the next few nights, as an incoming solar tempest may trigger colorful displays of auroras.
This past weekend, a giant gaping hole opened up in the corona, the sun’s upper atmosphere. Such coronal holes form when the sun’s magnetic field lines open up, allowing hot plasma to spill into space and sending out intense gusts of solar wind.
The latest solar blast has been racing through the inner solar system at speeds of two million miles an hour—with Earth in its crosshairs. This high-speed cloud of charged particles is expected to lash our planet between November 7 and 9.
When such gusts of solar wind reach Earth, they send charged particles racing
