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                           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.   
      
                                  2024 January 18   
      
                       Northern Lights from the Stratosphere   
                       Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner   
      
      Explanation: Northern lights shine in this night skyview from planet   
      Earth's stratosphere, captured on January 15. The single, 5 second   
      exposure was made with a hand-held camera on board an aircraft above   
      Winnipeg, Canada. During the exposure, terrestrial lights below leave   
      colorful trails along the direction of motion of the speeding aircraft.   
      Above the more distant horizon, energetic particles accelerated along   
      Earth's magnetic field at the planet's polar regions excite atomic   
      oxygen to create the shimmering display of Aurora Borealis. The   
      aurora's characteristic greenish hue is generated at altitudes of   
      100-300 kilometers and red at even higher altitudes and lower   
      atmospheric densities. The luminous glow of faint stars along the plane   
      of our Milky Way galaxy arcs through the night, while the Andromeda   
      galaxy extends this northern skyview to extragalactic space. A diffuse   
      hint of Andromeda, the closest large spiral to the Milky Way, can just   
      be seen to the upper left.   
      
               Tomorrow's picture: shortest day in the Solar System   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Ryan Smallcomb Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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