On Nov. 3 a solar storm caused a temporary crack in Earth's magnetic field. The resulting hole enabled energetic particles to penetrate deep into the planet's atmosphere and set off extremely rare pink auroras.
An explosion of extremely rare pink auroras recently lit up the night sky above Norway after a solar storm slammed into Earth and ripped a hole in the planet's magnetic field. The breach enabled highly energetic solar particles to penetrate deeper into the atmosphere than normal, triggering the unusual colored lights.
"These were the strongest pink auroras I have seen in more than a decade of leading tours," Varik said."It was a humbling experience." Auroras most commonly appear green, because oxygen atoms, which are abundant in the part of the atmosphere that solar wind normally reaches, emit that hue when they are excited. However, during the recent solar storm, the crack in Earth's magnetosphere enabled the solar wind to penetrate below 62 miles, where nitrogen is the most abundant gas, according to Spaceweather.com. As a result, the auroras gave off a neon pink glow as the supercharged particles smashed mostly into nitrogen atoms.
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