NEW DELHI: A strange new image came from what appeared to be light pumpkin-colored pillars dancing in the night sky above Canada, caused by a recent solar storm that crashed into Earth. However, there is an issue with the picture: auroras with an orange hue shouldn’t exist, reported Space.com.
Experts said that rather than showing improbable auroras, the photo showed a unique combination of red and green lights that haven’t been this apparent since a massive solar storm struck Earth on Halloween 20 years ago.
According to Aurora photographer Harlan Thomas, “The orange was sublime, just incredible.” “The pillars in the center stayed there glowing for more than 20 minutes.”
Three days after the sun sent a large, slowly traveling coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth, Thomas took the vibrant picture above a pond west of Calgary, Alberta, on October 19, as per Space.com.
When high-energy particles from solar wind or CMEs escape Earth’s magnetosphere and superheat upper atmosphere gas molecules, auroras are produced. Depending on which element is being excited, different colors of light are released by the excited molecules.
The two most common aurora colors are red and green, which are both given off by oxygen molecules at different altitudes (red auroras are produced at higher altitudes than their green variants). But when the solar particles penetrate deep into the atmosphere, they can also trigger rare pink auroras when they excite nitrogen molecules.
Theoretically, both oxygen and nitrogen molecules can give off orange wavelengths under specific conditions. However, even when this happens, the orange is overwhelmed by the other colors given off by the molecules surrounding it, making it practically impossible to see these wavelengths, Space.com reported.
“There can be a mixing of the two processes [red and green auroras], which fools the camera and eye to believe that it is orange,” Kjellmar Oksavik, a space weather scientist and aurora expert at the University of Bergen in Norway, “In reality, it is both red and green at the same time.”
The last time such vibrant pumpkin-like hues were spotted was the great Halloween storm of 2003.
Experts said that rather than showing improbable auroras, the photo showed a unique combination of red and green lights that haven’t been this apparent since a massive solar storm struck Earth on Halloween 20 years ago.
According to Aurora photographer Harlan Thomas, “The orange was sublime, just incredible.” “The pillars in the center stayed there glowing for more than 20 minutes.”
Three days after the sun sent a large, slowly traveling coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth, Thomas took the vibrant picture above a pond west of Calgary, Alberta, on October 19, as per Space.com.
When high-energy particles from solar wind or CMEs escape Earth’s magnetosphere and superheat upper atmosphere gas molecules, auroras are produced. Depending on which element is being excited, different colors of light are released by the excited molecules.
The two most common aurora colors are red and green, which are both given off by oxygen molecules at different altitudes (red auroras are produced at higher altitudes than their green variants). But when the solar particles penetrate deep into the atmosphere, they can also trigger rare pink auroras when they excite nitrogen molecules.
Theoretically, both oxygen and nitrogen molecules can give off orange wavelengths under specific conditions. However, even when this happens, the orange is overwhelmed by the other colors given off by the molecules surrounding it, making it practically impossible to see these wavelengths, Space.com reported.
“There can be a mixing of the two processes [red and green auroras], which fools the camera and eye to believe that it is orange,” Kjellmar Oksavik, a space weather scientist and aurora expert at the University of Bergen in Norway, “In reality, it is both red and green at the same time.”
The last time such vibrant pumpkin-like hues were spotted was the great Halloween storm of 2003.
