What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal hole opened last month, a few days before this image was taken, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons , protons , and ions toward the Earth . Some of this cloud impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and resulted in spectacular auroras being seen at high northern latitudes. Featured here is a particularly photogenic auroral curtain captured above Troms Norway . To the astrophotographer, this shimmering green glow of recombining atmospheric oxygen appeared as a large dragon , but feel free to share what it looks like to you. Although now past Solar Maximum , our Sun continues to show occasional activity creating impressive auroras on Earth visible even last week .
Media Credits & Attribution
Image Credit & Copyright: [Marco Bastoni](mailto:mbastoni @at@ libero .dot. it)