A satellite in space just saw ghostly auroras dance above Earth
From the ground, auroras look like beautifully colored curtains of light dancing in the sky, but from above, the northern and southern lights take on a different kind of other-worldly glow.
A new photo taken by a satellite staring at Earth in infrared light reveals the ghostly glow of auroras stretching from Canada into the northern portions of the United States.
The new images were taken by an instrument aboard the Suomi NPP satellite, which in the past has produced amazing images of storms on Earth and the smoke from wildfires stretching above the planet.
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The solar storm that caused Tuesday's aurora show was relatively weak, ranking as a G1 -- or minor -- geomagnetic storm on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Space Weather Prediction Center's scale.
But it still produced quite a cosmic show for those lucky enough to see it.
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Auroras are produced when particles from the sun stream toward Earth and impact the planet's magnetic field.
Those fast-moving charged particles carried by the solar wind can sometimes impact Earth's upper atmosphere at the planet's poles, interacting with neutral particles and then causing them to glow.
The colors of the lights are dictated by the kind of molecules the charged solar particles slam into.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
