Dragon Aurora over Iceland

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2024-01-14 · NASA (public domain)

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Dragon Aurora over Iceland — APOD for 2024-01-14

Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don't exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019 . The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun's corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth's magnetosphere . As some of those particles then struck Earth's atmosphere , they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer's mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences , filaments , sunspots , and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2024-01-14 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.

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