Aurora spotting in Kendal, northern England, May 10, 2024.
Stop Press Media/Alamy
The aurora was noticeable with the naked eye – but was spectacular through a camera lens.
Aurora visible from Cope Cope, Victoria on May 11 2024.
cafuego/Flickr
Australians were in for a Mother’s Day treat as auroras swept the skies. But there was little warning, and the spectacle didn’t repeat.
AP Photo/Kyle Green
The electric rainbow of the aurora happens when excited atoms relax via ‘forbidden transitions’.
A sunspot emitting a flare on the surface of the sun.
(NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory)
The sun is expected to reach its solar maximum in 2025. Recent auroras suggest that the maximum may be bigger than predicted.
Lightscape / Unsplash
The aurora is one of nature’s most spectacular sights, a dazzling glow in the upper atmosphere driven by space weather.
PhotoVisions/Shutterstock
It’s often said that the aurora, or the northern lights, is caused by ‘particles from the Sun’. But in reality things are more complicated.
NASA
Researchers have found the first Australian evidence of this global event, during which people on Earth would have witnessed a multitude of spectacular auroras.