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Particles From the Sun Produce Light Show on Earth

The aurora borealis glow on the northern horizon while stars wheel overhead in this long exposure, taken near the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Nov. 4, 2021.
The aurora borealis glow on the northern horizon while stars wheel overhead in this long exposure, taken near the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Nov. 4, 2021.

The aurora borealis glow on the northern horizon while stars wheel overhead in this long exposure, taken near the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Nov. 4, 2021. Sky watchers in many locations were treated to unusually intense light displays, thanks to a geomagnetic storm created when multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) of charged particles from the Sun interacted with Earth’s magnetic field.

Image credit: NASA/ Bill Dunford