These are some magnificiant pictures and videos of auroras that was taken due to the event of a coronal mass ejection, or CME, that hit our planet earlier this week. A CME is a cloud of superheated gas and charged particles hurled off the sun. The experts said that a strong solar flare had erupted from an active region on the sun triggered the strongest solar storm experienced since October 2003.
When a CME hits Earth, the charged solar particles can interact with gases in our atmosphere to produce the northern and southern lights [National Geographic].
Facts : Airplanes had to change routes, and the power grid and satellites were affected.
Photograph by Ole C. Salomonsen, www.arcticlightphoto.no
Taken in Lyngan Alps near Tromsø, Norway, on January 24.
