Explanation: If you see a sky like this -- photograph it. A month ago in Iceland, an adventurous photographer (pictured) chanced across a sky full of aurora and did just that. In the foreground lies the stratovolcano zhrFfajZhkull. In the background, among other sky delights, lies the constellation of Orion, visible to the aurora's left. Auroras are sparked by energetic particles from the Sun impacting the magnetic environment around the Earth. Resultant energetic particles such as electrons and protons rain down near the Earth's poles and impact the air. The impacted air molecules obtain excited electrons, and when electrons in oxygen molecules fall back to their ground state, they emit green light. Auroras are known to have many shapes and colors.

Click Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: aurora - volcano - iceland - polyarnoe siyanie - Orion - vulkan Publikacii so slovami: aurora - volcano - iceland - polyarnoe siyanie - Orion - vulkan
Sm. takzhe: Raznocvetnoe polyarnoe siyanie nad Novoi Zelandiei Severnoe siyanie nad Ital'yanskimi Al'pami Severnoe siyanie v Zapadnoi Virginii Yuzhnoe polyarnoe siyanie i Mezhdunarodnaya kosmicheskaya stanciya Pozdnyaya noch' v Vallentune Vulkan Vil'yarrika na fone neba Mlechnyi Put' nad goroi Etna Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>