Northern Lights dazzle in brief appearance over Stonehenge
The northern lights lit up much of the UK and Ireland on Saturday night – from Orkney and Donegal to parts of southern England including Stonehenge.
The Aurora Borealis, dancing green and red lights, have captivated people for millennia, and appear when geomagnetic storms occur. Disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field result in hours of bright auroras both at high and low latitudes.
“Northern Lights over Stonehenge last night,” read a post by the official Twitter account for the Wiltshire historical centrepiece, which was accompanied by a photograph.
Northern Lights over Stonehenge last night 😍✨#aurora #auroraborealis #northernlights #stonehenge
— Stonehenge U.K (@ST0NEHENGE) November 5, 2023
Photo credit Stonehenge Dronescapes on FB 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/aFh2XWOME5
The light spectacle is usually most visible near Earth’s magnetic north and south poles, where the lights are called the aurora australis.
They are caused by the interaction of particles coming from the sun, known as the solar wind. These particles can travel millions miles, with some eventually reaching the Earth. They are then channelled to the polar regions by Earth’s magnetic field.
Depending on which gas molecules are hit and where they are in the atmosphere, different amounts of energy are released as different wavelengths of light, with oxygen producing green light and nitrogen causing the sky to glow red.
This evening's aurora shot just before the rain and clouds rolled in - Milford, Co. Donegal. #aurora pic.twitter.com/tNm8ZKoyCE
— Proinsias Carr (@pcarr2000) November 4, 2023
Though light pollution makes the aurora difficult to see, some photographers still managed to capture the spectacle while documenting firework displays to mark bonfire weekend.
It was the Italian astronomer Galielo Galiliei who coined the name Aurora Borealis in 1619, after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas. But the earliest suspected record of the northern lights is a 30,000 year-old cave painting in France.
The lights also dazzled Britons last month. They have been expected to be stronger than they have been for at least a decade over these autumn and winter months.