|
| Extremely rare pink auroras temporarily filled the skies above Norway after a crack in the Earth's magnetosphere enabled solar wind to penetrate deep into Earth's atmosphere. (Image credit: Markus Varik/Greenlander) |
On Nov. 3 a solar storm caused a temporary crack in Earth's magnetic field.
The resulting hole enabled energetic particles to penetrate deep into the
planet's atmosphere and set off extremely rare pink auroras.
An explosion of extremely rare pink auroras recently lit up the night sky
above Norway after a solar storm slammed into Earth and ripped a hole in the
planet's magnetic field. The breach enabled highly energetic solar particles
to penetrate deeper into the atmosphere than normal, triggering the unusual
colored lights.
The stunning light show was spotted Nov. 3 by a tour group led by Markus
Varik, a northern lights tour guide from the Greenlander tour company(opens
in new tab) based near Tromsø in Norway. The vibrant auroras emerged at
around 6 p.m. local time and lasted for around 2 minutes, Varik told Live
Science in an email.
"These were the strongest pink auroras I have seen in more than a decade of
leading tours," Varik said. "It was a humbling experience."
The pink auroras emerged shortly after a small crack appeared in the
magnetosphere — an invisible magnetic field surrounding Earth that is
generated by the planet's fluid metal core. Scientists detected the breach
after a minor G-1 class solar storm slammed into Earth on Nov. 3, according
to
Spaceweather.com.
|
| Pink auroras are extremely rare compared to the more common green lights. (Image credit: Markus Varik/Greenlander) |
Auroras are formed when streams of highly energetic charged particles, known
as solar wind, pass around the magnetosphere. The planet's magnetic field
protects us from cosmic radiation, but the shield is naturally weaker at the
North and South Poles, which enables the solar wind to skim through the
atmosphere — usually between 62 and 186 miles (100 and 300 kilometers) above
Earth's surface. As solar particles pass through the atmosphere, they
superheat gases, which then vibrantly glow in the night sky, according to
NASA.
|
| Pink and green auroras shone in the sky together. (Image credit: Markus Varik/Greenlander) |
Auroras most commonly appear green, because oxygen atoms, which are
abundant in the part of the atmosphere that solar wind normally reaches,
emit that hue when they are excited. However, during the recent solar storm,
the crack in Earth's magnetosphere enabled the solar wind to penetrate below
62 miles, where nitrogen is the most abundant gas, according to
Spaceweather.com. As a result, the auroras gave off a neon pink glow as the
supercharged particles smashed mostly into nitrogen atoms.
The crack in Earth's magnetosphere also helped to generate strong green
auroras throughout the night, Varik said.
The magnetosphere hole closed around 6 hours after it first opened. During
this time, a strange ribbon of blue light also emerged in the skies above
Sweden, where it hung motionless in the sky for around 30 minutes,
according to Spaceweather.com.
However, experts are unsure if this unusual phenomenon was some
never-before-seen type of aurora caused by the compromised magnetosphere, or
if it was the result of something else. One expert suggested that the ribbon
could have been made up of frozen fuel from a Russian rocket, but no rockets
were spotted in the area, according to Spaceweather.com.
Source: Link
Tags:
Space & Astrophysics