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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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With vibrant pinks, purples, and greens, the aurora borealis rippled across the sky last weekend in gleaming curtains of light.
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Turning their cameras to the skies, many members of the La Salle community and people across the region were able to capture the beauty of a rare phenomenon last weekend. The aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, was visible in several regions across the world last weekend for the first time since the early 2000s as a result of a powerful solar storm.
Every 11 years, the sun goes through an increase in activity called the solar cycle, causing more sunspots and solar flares, which sends more energy hurtling towards our atmosphere. When the charged particles hit the Earth’s magnetic field, the particles are launched to Earth. In a process similar to the one that illuminates neon lamps, they collide with gases in the atmosphere, producing the colorful sparks of light that create the aurora borealis.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, on May 11, G5 conditions — the strongest level of geomagnetic storm — reached Earth, the first solar storm of this magnitude since October 2003. The result was a dazzling flourish of lights that curled and swelled like waves across the skies of the Pacific Northwest and other regions around the world from May 10 to 13.
If you missed the display, don’t worry — the NASA Earth Observatory predicts that in upcoming years, these solar storms will be stronger and more frequent, meaning that the aurora borealis may be visible again in the Pacific Northwest as soon as 2025.
