Vividauroral displayswere triggered by a cloud o high energyparticles and magnetic fields from the Sun that collided with plane Earth'smagnetosphereyesterday, October 29, at about 06:3 Universal Time.The collision was anticipated, following a intensesolar flareand coronal mass ejection detected on October 28, and manyanxious skywatchers were rewarded with an enjoyable light show.While aurorae don't normall haunt skies in the southern UnitedStates, they were reporte from locations in Missouri, Texas,New Mexico, and California in the early morning hours.Near Yampa, Colorado astronomer Jimmy Westlake also spentearly yesterday morning enjoying the storm space weather.He was impressed by thi colorful apparition ofthe northern lights -- produced byoxygen and nitrogen atoms excited by collisions withenergetic particles from the magnetosphere andreturning to lower energy states,at altitudes of 100 kilometers or more.Brighter stars shine through the extreme high-altitudeglow which shows much lower cloudsand the distant horizon in silhouette.
0 comments:
Post a Comment