Sky-gazers have been handled to a uncommon present of color within the sky final night time, with the Northern Lights being seen throughout the UK.
Also often known as Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights are normally finest seen in excessive latitude areas nearer to the Arctic, resembling Scandinavia.
In the UK, normally solely Scotland and components of northern England are fortunate sufficient to see the particular sight, however this time even components of southern England – resembling Kent and Cornwall – reported sightings.
The Met Office confirmed late on Sunday: “A coronial hole high speed stream” had mixed with “a rather fast coronial mass ejection” resulting in Aurora sightings throughout the UK.
According to the Royal Museums Greenwich, Aurora is attributable to atoms and molecules in our environment colliding with particles from the Sun.
The wavy patterns of sunshine are attributable to the traces of pressure within the Earth’s magnetic area, and the totally different colors are made by totally different gasses – the inexperienced is attribute of oxygen, whereas the purple, blue or pink are attributable to nitrogen.
The lowest a part of an Aurora is normally round 80 miles from Earth’s floor however the prime could possibly be many hundreds of miles above Earth.
How do I see the Aurora from the UK?
The additional north you’re, the extra seemingly you’re to see the show – should you’re on Twitter, try @aurorawatchuk, the place the house physicists at Lancaster University will tweet when the Aurora could also be seen from the UK.
The situations nonetheless must be proper – darkish and clear nights, with as little gentle air pollution as potential.
The Met Office has stated that the Aurora is prone to be seen to components of the UK once more tonight.
Source: information.sky.com”