Northern Lights illuminate skies above Britain in a rare and breathtaking display
A mesmerizing dance of colors has lit up the UK skies, captivating millions. This rare celestial event has turned the night into a canvas of vibrant hues.
For decades tourists have flocked to the Norwegian coast, Alaska, Northern Canada, Southern Greenland, Iceland, and the far north of Scandinavia and Russia, in the hope of tripping the light fantastic. Package trips typically cost thousands of pounds.
But the night sky phenomenon will be clearly visible much closer to home this week as they transform the skies above the UK with streaks of pink, purple and green.
A geomagnetic storm that has raged for months has made this celestial firework display visible further south – even in London.
Astronomer Tom Kerss said: “We have had a super season of aurora-chasing.
“And the good news is that heightened solar activity brings an increased chance of sightings at UK latitudes.”
Boffins at Royal Museums Greenwich, the home of astronomy, said the lights are caused by solar storms on the surface of the sun giving out clouds of electrically charged particles which can travel millions of miles and collide with the Earth.
Most are deflected away but some are captured in the magnetic field and hurtle down towards the north and south poles, colliding with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.
In the UK the Northern Lights can be regularly seen in Scotland, but are rarely spotted in the south.
Some spend years and tens of thousands of pounds hoping to catch a glimpse of the world’s most fabled light show.
But for the past 48-hours the spectacular Northern Lights have been clearly visible for free, dancing above millions of homes across Britain.
The hypnotic aurora - formed by a solar flare erupting on the sun - pirouetted across the skies in a jaw-dropping and magical display.
The multicoloured light show, also known as the aurora borealis and sometimes visible in the north, was at its magical best as the sky above St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay, Tyneside, turned into a jaw-dropping fluorescent spectacle.
The viridescent phantasmagoria comes when charged particles hurtle towards Earth, interacting with our atmosphere.
