The northern lights.
Get ready, northern Minnesota sky watchers and star gazers: The night skies may be lit up with green fire tonight!
Scientists say chances are about 50-50 that a spectacular display of the northern lights, or aurora borealis, may blaze across the sky this evening because of an unusually large eruption in solar activity.
Early Sunday, the sun’s surface erupted, belching astronomical loads of ionized particles into space, which are screaming toward earth as you read this. It takes about two days for such particles to travel the 93 million miles from the sun to the earth. When the particles strike the earth’s upper atmosphere, they collide with nitrogen and oxygen molecules, exciting them to a glowing state.
The result may be shimmering green curtains of light across the sky -- and the colors may also include pinks, purples, even tones of red.
It makes for a haunting, lovely sight, one of nature’s greatest special effects, and those of us in northern Minnesota have a front row seat -- although this event may be big enough to produce northern lights across much of the northern United States.
NASA scientists say the display could start tonight, August 3, and continue through Aug. 4 and 5.
You don’t need any telescopes or special equipment. Just your two bright eyes and a clear dark sky, the further away from city lights, the better. So consider stepping out tonight for some natural shock and awe, and mostly awe?
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