NASA revealed that the unprecedented aurora borealis, which recently astonished millions in the skies of North America and Europe, was among the most powerful light displays our planet has witnessed in centuries.
Scientists say that the dancing lights, which may have reached the equator, were caused by the strongest geomagnetic storm the Earth has witnessed in more than two decades.
Between May 10 and 12, our planet witnessed a major geomagnetic disturbance after at least five solar storms collided with Earth, temporarily weakening the magnetosphere.
The solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections (CME), were triggered by solar flares from giant sunspot AR3664, which was more than 15 times larger than Earth at the time, and is the largest dark spot to appear on the Sun in a decade.
Many of these solar flares reached Category X, the most powerful type of surface explosion that the Sun can produce.
A “severe” G4 geomagnetic storm was also observed, which is the second highest category of geomagnetic storms. But on two other occasions, the storm temporarily reached the "extreme" G5 category, the aftermath of which is equivalent to the Carrington Event of 1859, the most powerful solar storm in recorded history, which caused auroras as far south as Cuba and Hawaii.
NASA representatives wrote in a statement that the light displays witnessed in Earth's skies this month covered vast areas of both hemispheres, and were perhaps "one of the most powerful aurora displays recorded in the past 500 years."
Aurora displays, which range from green to pink and crimson, are caused by the interaction of charged particles from the Sun with gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
The most spectacular aurora appears when the Sun releases large clouds of particles called coronal mass ejections.
The aurora borealis are usually only seen at high latitudes such as in Canada and Scandinavia, but a powerful geomagnetic storm unleashed by the sun recently caused the dazzling lights to appear south towards the equator on May 10, all the way to Ladakh in South Asia. It was the most powerful solar storm to hit the planet since 2003.
“To our knowledge, the last time skygazers saw the aurora in the region was during the Carrington Event in September 1859, when the aurora was seen from a ship in the Coral Sea ( Also known as the Coral Sea, it is located off the northeastern coast of Australia.
Some of these flares have produced spectacular aurorae, caused temporary power outages, disrupted satellites, and caused flights to be rerouted in the Northern Hemisphere.
Some storms were so intense that they could be detected from beneath the ocean.
“The coronal emissions arrived all at once, and the conditions were just right to create a truly historic storm,” said Elizabeth MacDonald, a NASA physicist.
NASA said the main region on the Sun responsible for recent stormy space weather is now moving away from Earth, but data captured so far from this month's solar events could help astronomers for years.
“We will study this event for years,” said Teresa Nieves Chinchilla, acting director of NASA’s Space Weather Analysis Office. “It will help us test the limits of our models and understand solar storms.”
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