AURORA AUSTRALIS FROM SPACE

Aurora is a luminous glow of the upper atmosphere which is caused by energetic particles that enter the atmosphere from above. We often hear about the the Aurora Borealis of the Northern Hemisphere which is known as the northern lights, but there is also the Aurora Australis of the Southern Hemisphere, known as the southern lights. From space, the aurora is a crown of light that circles each of Earth's poles. From the Earth's surface, the ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky. On September 11, 2005, four days after a record - setting solar flare sent plasma - an ionized gas of protons and electrons - flying towards the Earth, the ring of light that the solar storm generated over Antarctica glowed green in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum as seen in this beautiful video. [Note: The video of the aurora is overlaid onto NASA's satellite-based Blue Marble image.]

Read more about the Aurora or why not go on a trip and see them for yourself?

[via: hedonistica.com]