Epic Light Show Flashes Above U.S.

Discovery News
Right this moment, there's an epic magnetic battle raging above our heads.
On Monday, at around 2 p.m. ET, a coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into the Earth's magnetosphere. According to NASA's Space Weather Laboratory, the conditions were just right for the CME's magnetic field to compress the Earth's magnetosphere so much that, for a short time (between 3:06 p.m and 3:11 p.m. ET), energetic solar wind particles penetrated as deep as geosynchronous orbit -- home to hundreds of communication satellites.
ANALYSIS: Epic Aurora Caught Cross Country -- Share YOUR photos of the aurora!
Although the interactions between solar plasma and Earth's magnetic field are often invisible, tonight is an exception. Vast aurorae are rippling through the atmosphere at very low latitudes.
At time of writing, the US was being given a dazzling show as Spaceweather.com reports:

Northern Lights have spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous USA. Sighting reports have come from as far south as Arkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Maryland, New York, Ohio and central California.

Yes, central California! To see some of the auroral displays, the Universe Today has a few reader's photos featured. My personal favorite is an earlier photograph taken in Norway.


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