VIVED AURORAS PAINTED QUITE THE PICTURE IN SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA ON TUESDAY NIGHT. This image was taken in northern Murray County. The intense aurora extended all the way down to central Mexico. Auroras are caused by the collision of charged particles from the sun with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. This week’s spectacle was the result of a severe G4 geomagnetic storm, one of the strongest this solar cycle. The charged particles, carried by the solar wind, are channeled by the Earth’s magnetic field to the polar regions, where they excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms, causing them to glow in different colors. Photo / Per Peterson
