Northern lights were seen in skies across the U.S. overnight due to energy coming from severe solar storms.
The aurora borealis — skies lighting up in stunning shades of blue, pink and green — was spotted in states spanning from Minnesota and Massachusetts to Florida, Colorado and Texas.
The sun has spurted out multiple bursts of energy over the past few days called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a G4 — or severe — geomagnetic storm watch in response to the CMEs, which are huge bubbles of coronal plasma that the sun occasionally ejects, NASA says. The highest geomagnetic storm level is G5, which is considered extreme.
Geomagnetic storms can cause disruptions to critical communication infrastructure, and NOAA had said they could make the northern lights visible in even the southern U.S. starting on Tuesday night. More northern lights could be seen again on Wednesday night in some areas.
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