October 12, 2024
There are stars whose light will never reach us, worlds we will never touch, mysteries we may never solve.
Northern Lights, West Virginia
Birthday · October 12, 2024
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APOD published October 12, 2024. Credit: Jonathan Eggleston. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
A gravel country lane gently winds through this colorful rural night skyscape. Captured from Monroe County in southern West Virginia on the evening of October 10, the starry sky above is a familiar sight. Shimmering curtains of aurora borealis or northern lights definitely do not make regular appearances here, though. Surprisingly vivid auroral displays were present on that night at very low latitudes around the globe, far from their usual northern and southern high latitude realms. The extensive auroral activity was evidence of a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by the impact of a coronal mass ejection (CME), an immense magnetized cloud of energetic plasma. The CME was launched toward Earth from the active Sun following a powerful X-class solar flare. Growing Gallery: Global aurora during October 10/11, 2024
Image credit: Jonathan Eggleston