While most of India did not get to see the Aurora lights visible in many parts of the world recently, the solar flares that caused it were seen by Indian ground stations, the spacecraft Aditya-L1 studying the Sun from a point 1.5 million km away, and the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon.
The colourful lights in the night sky are a result of the charged particles ejected by the Sun hitting the gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Usually, these particles travel along the Earth’s magnetic fields, reaching the poles where the vibrant colours are seen.
But, during a geomagnetic storm, like the one witnessed recently, the magnetic fields may break and allow the particles to reach the upper atmosphere.
While most of India did not get to see the Aurora lights visible in many parts of the world recently, the solar flares that caused it were seen by Indian ground stations, the spacecraft Aditya-L1 studying the Sun from a point 1.5 million km away, and the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon.
The colourful lights in the night sky are a result of the charged particles ejected by the Sun hitting the gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Usually, these particles travel along the Earth’s magnetic fields, reaching the poles where the vibrant colours are seen. But, during a geomagnetic storm, like the one witnessed recently, the magnetic fields may break and allow the particles to reach the upper atmosphere.
