Parts of Australia Were Treated to a Stunning Light Show as Aurora Australis Broke Out in the Sky

The Sun might be the only worthy star that provides light to Earth, but, at times, it can turn too fiery. In geomagnetic storms, for instance. From time to time, some magnetic field lines of the Sun become tangled, triggering destabilization. Flurries of electrons and protons shake loose and hurtle towards Earth. While most of them are deflected back, thanks to Earth’s robust magnetic fortress, many of them surpass the field and enter our planet through the poles.

Upon entry, they meet oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, TED-Ed notes. As they turn excited upon meeting, they scatter rainbows of colors, famously called “auroras.” Between November 11 and 13, Earth experienced three powerful geomagnetic storms back to back, an event that smoldered the skies of Southern Australia with delicious displays of light, ABC News reported.

The sudden arrival of three geomagnetic storms, collectively dubbed “cannibal solar storm,” was unsurprising given that this is the most powerful phase of Earth’s 11-year solar cycle, but these remarkable displays of glowing light across Australia and New Zealand were entirely unexpected. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued an alert for a severe geomagnetic storm in advance. 

ABC News even shared a gallery of pictures sent to them by people from different parts of Australia, where colorful auroras, a.k.a "Southern Lights," From the purple-blue gradients in Burra to the bright, hot pinks enjoyed by Sydney, the variety is simply overwhelming. It wasn’t just a palette of colors; it was a whole buffet. In Perth’s outskirts, the buffet served candy pinks, blushing peach, and iridescent yellows; in Cooma’s hill-flanked pastures, viewers sipped the visuals of cranberry pink with elongated columns of gleaming purples.

Maverick Algoso, a local from Camden in south-west Sydney, shared pictures of an aurora featuring a cascading shower of purple, maroon, and marigold on a street lit up with yellow lights. A hut in Moss Vale sparkled with a mix of blueberries and magenta wine. And the spirits of Beechwood’s residents must have gotten possessed by the night as a spectacle of glittering stars materialized with a backdrop of blushing red splashes and dancing goldens.

Above Tasmania’s iconic Dun Briste sea stack, the sky turned into an ocean jewel, gleaming with glassy blues, greens, and turquoise. Near Texas, the Silver Spur psyched up with witchy undertones of dark navy blue and blood red. The Ricketts Point in Melbourne seemed to have turned into the aura of an enlightened saint, radiant with a corona of neon lemon, mint green, and golden brown. Elsewhere, several parts of Southern Australia got drunk in a gamut of prismatic colors, dancing to a musical ballet, both groovy and psychedelic.

When looked at from a scientist’s perspective, the hypnotic skies were all but a disturbance in Earth’s magnetosphere, triggered by the intense geomagnetic storm activity, Dr. Sara Webb, astrophysicist at Swinburne University, explained to The Guardian. Dr. Laura Driessen from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy added that there was “a really strong and magnetically active sunspot on the sun at the moment.” The one on the 10th proved to be stronger and faster than the one erupting on the 9th.

The second one caught up with the first one, and they amalgamated together by the time they reached Earth, hence the term “cannibalised.” The second storm gobbled up the first one, experts described to CNN. Meanwhile, the news of these storms halted two NASA spacecraft from getting launched for their trip to Mars. Blue Origin, the space tech company behind the mission’s launch, wrote on X that the launch has been postponed until the weather conditions improve.

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