#3rdplanet | Emerald nights✨ As the Sun approaches its peak at solar maximum, so do both the northern and southern lights. In this photo by Kenny Spann we can appreciate all the magic of these luminescent phenomena. Specifically, this aurora occurred during the night of February 25 on the outskirts of Fairbank, Alaska🇺🇸. Hours earlier, a strong solar flare occurred in the AR3998 sunspot region. This activity resulted in this wonder. This phenomenon occurs due to disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere caused, as already mentioned, by the solar wind. Furthermore, the main perturbations are due to increases in the speed of the solar wind caused by coronal holes and coronal mass ejections. These perturbations alter the trajectories of charged particles in the magnetospheric plasma. These particles, mainly electrons and protons, precipitate in the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere). The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emit light of varying color and complexity. The shape of the aurora, which occurs in bands around both polar regions, also depends on the amount of acceleration imparted to the precipitating particles. Most planets in the solar system, some natural satellites, brown dwarfs and even comets also display auroras. To name two planets, Jupiter and Saturn have auroras that are visible for millions of kilometers. More recently, 2024 gave us a true aurora show during the most intense geomagnetic storm in the last 35 years, which occurred in May of that year. That storm was strong enough to cause auroras in countries as remote as Cuba. This is just another example of how vulnerable we are to the universe. Join our news channels at: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPqZ_OKNCVuvCGCnZssCrTg WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va5SvBsFXUugmHOqET1l Spock🖖