The night between August 12 and 13 August offered amazing natural sights for the sky watchers in this region who could observe the Northern Lights and the Perseids, a prolific meteor shower. The most beautiful meteor shower of the year peaked over the weekend and continued on Monday. With luck, one could spot up to 100 shooting stars on recent nights.
Although already waning, the Perseid shower will continue for several weeks. Last night also saw the appearance of the Northern Lights, so meteors were not only black, but also purple and green, which is very rare. “The August sky threw a cosmic party.
It was worth getting out of bed in the middle of the night, getting in the car and driving out of town. I was lucky enough to get there just as the beautiful glow was getting stronger. The poles were visible to the naked eye, as were the red and green colours,” says Dr Ieva Plikusienė, the scientist who captured the magical aurora.
The Northern Lights are seen when a geomagnetic storm occurs – electrified particles (plasma) from the Sun collide with the Earth’s magnetic field. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the aurora borealis has been visible from August 8–10. Five coronal mass ejections occurred on the Sun on August 8 and a G4 (strong) geomagnetic storm was detected on Earth.
This was the cause of last night’s auroras. The colour of the aurora depends on the altitude at which the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are excited by electric particles. Oxygen gives off either greenish-yellow or red light, while nitrogen shines blue.
When electrons collide with oxygen above 240 km, they show pinkish hues, while at 97-240 km they show greenish hues. Weekly newsletter every Friday.
