Northern Lights over Shelter Island
Shelter Island and most of the region was blessed Thursday evening by one of the rarest and most beautiful celestial events — the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis.
The night sky turned a shimmering crimson, with green highlights flashing over the Island.
Space.com describes Aurora Borealis happening when “energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph … At any given moment, the sun is ejecting charged particles from its corona, or upper atmosphere, creating the solar wind. When that wind slams into Earth’s ionosphere, or upper atmosphere, the Aurora is born.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described Thursday’s startling event as the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) out of the sun that happened two days ago. But it took its time before arriving in our skies to present the Aurora, leaving all those outside in the cool autumn evening in a state of wonder.
