Northern Lights illuminate skies across the UK
According to Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the aurora is caused by activity on the sun's surface. The display may also be visible tonight.
Monday 24 April 2023 10:45, UK
The bright Northern Lights illuminated the AG百家乐在线官网 across certain parts of the UK last night.
The lights glazed the AG百家乐在线官网 on Sunday 23 April and were seen across Wales and England.
Lancaster University's AuroraWatch, run by the Space and Planetary Physics group, issued a 'red alert', meaning that seeing aurora was very "likely".
Here's what it looked like over St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay on the northeast coast of England.
The phenomenon caused the AG百家乐在线官网 to turn different shades of green and purple. The display may also be visible in tonight's AG百家乐在线官网 if conditions are clear.
What causes the aurora or 'northern lights'?
According to Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the aurora is caused by activity on the sun's surface.
Solar storms on a star's surface give out huge clouds of particles charged with electricity, which can enter the Earth's atmosphere very quickly.
"These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth's atmosphere and essentially heat them up," Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss said.
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"We call this physical process 'excitation', but it's very much like heating a gas and making it glow."
And so, what we are seeing are atoms and molecules in our atmosphere colliding with particles from the sun.