In Pics: Stunning Aurora Substorm Captured By Stargazers

The Northern Lights brighten the night sky, offering a spectacular sight to stargazers. Many planets, including Earth, have a magnetosphere—a vast magnetic shield created by the planet’s molten metal core. This shield extends far into space and protects the planet by absorbing energy from harmful charged particles in the space environment.

When parts of the magnetosphere become overloaded with energy, a geomagnetic storm can occur, similar to how thunderclouds build before a storm. During such storms, the stored energy is released along Earth's magnetic field lines and falls into the atmosphere like a heavy downpour.

The particle precipitation during geomagnetic storms injects millions of amps into the atmosphere, creating spectacular auroral displays far from the poles.

Coronal Mass Ejections and Aurora Formation

Solar magnetic storms can occasionally eject huge amounts of solar material into space in events known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These look like massive blobs traveling through the solar atmosphere and space.

Aurora colors arise from energetic particles colliding with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere. Different gases emit unique colors depending on their altitude:

Green auroras, the most common, come from electrons exciting oxygen atoms between 100-200 km altitude.
Blue auroras are produced by nitrogen at 100-200 km altitude.
Reddish-purple or pink glows appear when nitrogen is excited below 100 km.

Summary

Earth's magnetosphere shields us from solar energy, and its interaction with charged particles leads to beautiful auroras, especially during geomagnetic storms and solar mass ejections.

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Mashable India — 2025-11-07