Exciting news for anyone who has wanted to see the phenomenon.
Astronomy Ireland is urging everyone to watch the night sky on Monday evening (27 February) for the northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis.
One of nature’s great spectacles, the lights were on very strong display on Sunday night as evident from the JOE image below.
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And Astronomy Ireland has said in a statement that another good display is expected after sunset on Monday, which should be visible from Ireland.
“Look in the north after sunset. You should at least see an arc of light low in the north, and if the display picks up as expected this could move much higher in the sky,” the astronomy society’s editor David Moore stated.
“In the past, perhaps once a decade, we can even see it overhead from Ireland, when it is an incredible sight.”
According to Astronomy Ireland, this aurora is being caused by a huge group of spots on the sun which are far bigger than Earth.
“Explosions on the sun, which would dwarf the entire world’s nuclear arsenal, have hurled billions of tonnes of radiation towards the Earth and our planet’s magnetic field has directed them to the north and south poles where they collide harmlessly with the Earth’s upper atmosphere,” the society’s statement reads.
Moore states that this solar radiation makes the Earth’s upper atmosphere glow in a process “similar to what goes on in flourescent light tubes” but on a scale of thousands of kilometres.
Astronomy Ireland is calling on people to report their sightings and take photos of this once-in-a-decade event.
“People around the world have been reporting seeing amazing displays of the aurora and tonight it should be Ireland’s turn so we want to hear from the general public what they see,” Moore added. You can visit Astronomy Ireland’s website right here.
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