On Thursday (Nov. 3) a mysterious blue ribbon of sunshine appeared within the skies over Abisko, a small village within the coronary heart of Swedish Lapland.
“Our group of photographers has been photographing the evening sky for greater than a decade and this occasion was in contrast to something we now have ever seen,” mentioned Chad Blakley, the director of the aurora tour firm Lights over Lapland (opens in new tab).
At first, skywatchers believed it was an aurora, albeit a really unusual one. However because the minutes handed they watched the blue gentle stay stationary — a stark distinction to the inexperienced aurora dancing round it. It was then they realized the blue glow was one thing relatively distinctive.
Associated: The place to see the northern lights: 2022 aurora borealis information
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The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are induced when energized particles from the solar slam into Earth‘s higher environment — the ionosphere — and are redirected in the direction of the poles by Earth’s magnetic subject. The colours are dictated by the chemical composition of Earth’s environment, with inexperienced produced by oxygen molecules and purple by nitrogen.
Figuring out this was no strange aurora, Blakley reached out to consultants within the subject to attempt to verify what might be inflicting the unusual gentle present.
“My first port of name was Dr. Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com,” mentioned Blakley. “Dr Phillips is an outdated buddy of mine, and he was as puzzled by the blue glow as I used to be.”
In keeping with Blakely, Phillips continued to achieve out to different consultants within the subject and finally got here to the conclusion that the odd blue aurora was probably brought on by a Russian submarine testing ICBMs (Intercontinental ballistic missiles).
A number of information reviews from the Eurasian Instances (opens in new tab) and Reuters (opens in new tab) reported that on the identical day because the blue “aurora”, Russia had efficiently test-fired a Bulava ballistic missile from the Russian nuclear-powered submarine Generalissimus Suvorov within the White Sea.
This is not the primary time a missile take a look at has probably induced such an odd “aurora” gentle present. In keeping with spaceweather.com (opens in new tab) on Oct. 27, 2017, related blue ribbons had been noticed within the skies above the Arctic Circle, after Russia launched various missiles throughout a battle drill.
In the event you hope to see the northern lights your self, try our information on the place and the best way to {photograph} the aurora. And for those who’re hoping to seize them on digital camera, contemplate our picks for the perfect gear for aurora images and the best way to edit aurora pictures. In the event you want gear, our roundups for the perfect cameras for astrophotography and greatest lenses for astrophotography can assist be sure to’re prepared for the subsequent aurora occasion.
Unable to attend an aurora gentle present in individual? Gentle over Lapland additionally hosts the longest-running aurora webcam on Earth. It has been capturing nonetheless pictures of the evening sky each 5 seconds for greater than a decade. You possibly can view pictures from this webcam and in addition a real-time high-definition aurora webcam on their web site (opens in new tab).
Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and Fb (opens in new tab).
