Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2019 July 14

                          Eagle Aurora over Norway
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Bjørn Jørgensen

   Explanation: What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass
   ejection occurred on our Sun five days before this 2012 image was
   taken, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions
   toward the Earth. Although most of this cloud passed above the Earth,
   some of it impacted our Earth's magnetosphere and resulted in
   spectacular auroras being seen at high northern latitudes. Featured
   here is a particularly photogenic auroral corona captured above
   Grotfjord, Norway. To some, this shimmering green glow of recombining
   atmospheric oxygen might appear as a large eagle, but feel free to
   share what it looks like to you. Although the Sun is near Solar
   Minimum, streams of the solar wind continue to impact the Earth and
   create impressive auroras visible even last week.

                   Tomorrow's picture: mechanical sun spot
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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