As solar storms barraged the Earth last week, a photographer caught this amazing, real-time video of northern lights over Norway. Check it out.
“The movement you’re seeing isn’t a physical motion. It’s not like solid curtains of material are flapping. The lights are caused by atoms in the upper atmosphere getting hit by subatomic particles blasted out by the Sun, caught by our Earth’s magnetic field, and funneled down into our air. These particles dump energy into the atoms, moving the electrons up in energy (called excitation). The electrons then jump back down, emitting light in the process (de-excitation).”
(Source: mothernaturenetwork)