Aurora Over Iceland
If you see a sky like this -- photograph it.
Three nights ago in
Iceland, an
adventurous photographer (pictured) chanced across a
sky full of aurora and did just that.
Afterwards, by stitching together five smaller photographs,
the entire aurora-lit sky was recreated in this 180-degree panorama taken from
Vatnajökull glacier.
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.