This exposure of the aurora borealis was taken on Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway, 2009 December 13. The 30 second exposure also happened to catch a meteor as well as the aurora, providing a striking contrast between the intensity of the two atmospheric events. This meteor was from the Geminid meteor shower, which has meteors that appear to originate from the constellation Gemini. Despite both events occurring in the upper atmosphere about 100 kilometers up, they have drastically different causes, with the aurora being caused by magnetically charged particles and meteors being space rock heating from the impact of crashing into our atmosphere.
No comments:
Post a Comment