Remains of sunspot explosion: a sun-splashed night sky! (app

[sunsplash1]

Sunspot explosion to light up Australian sky
A shimmering light display will hover over southern parts of Australia tonight.

The different colours in the sky are a result of a burst of space weather activity over recent days.

Phil Wilkinson from IPS Radio and Space Services says what people will see is the result of a massive sunspot explosion.

"What we've had is a disturbance on the sun, which has produced quite a major storm at the earth and the real visual display we see is the aurora," Dr Wilkinson said.

"Normally we see that at high latitudes like Antarctica but in this case the disturbance is strong enough so that it can be seen closer to Australia.

"What you're going to see, if you're lucky, is a very big disturbance - the sky can be lit up quite a crimson red colour."
Last Update: Wednesday, November 10, 2004. 7:50am (AEDT)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1239766.htm

:eek!!!!:
Hopefully it wasn't THAT big a bang.

Sorry, couldn't resist the wordplay in thread title...

 

[littleblackduck]

We call them Northern Lights were I come from! Aurora Borealis.

In Australia and New Zealand (and Antarctica) they would be Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights.

No big woof! The light is actually caused by solar particles captured by the Earth's magnetic field and funnelled towards the poles.

If you keep an eye on sunsport activity websites you can catch them, provided the weather cooperates.

I've never seen a really spectacular display. You need dark skies and you have to be close to a pole except in rare cases such as the present instance.