                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2023 April 25
   A dark rectangular building is seen across a green field with colorful
    aurora, mostly red, seen in the background sky. Past the aurora, the
     sky is also filled with stars. Please see the explanation for more
                            detailed information.

                    Northern Lights over Southern Europe
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Lorenzo Cordero

   Explanation: Did you see an aurora over the past two nights? Many
   people who don't live in Earth's far north did. Reports of aurora came
   in not only from northern locales in the USA as Alaska, but as far
   south as Texas and Arizona. A huge auroral oval extended over Europe
   and Asia, too. Pictured, an impressively red aurora was captured last
   night near the town of Cáceres in central Spain. Auroras were also
   reported in parts of southern Spain. The auroras resulted from a strong
   Coronal Mass Event (CME) that occurred on the Sun a few days ago.
   Particles from the CME crossed the inner Solar System before colliding
   with the Earth's magnetosphere. From there, electrons and protons
   spiraled down the Earth's northern magnetic field lines and collided
   with oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere, causing picturesque
   auroral glows. Our unusually active Sun may provide future
   opportunities to see the northern lights in southern skies.

                     Tomorrow's picture: lunar triomuphe
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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