A rare sighting of the Northern Lights was visible from Shropshire on Friday night as a massive solar storm brought a beautiful aurora to the skies above the UK.
The stunning light show came as the most powerful solar storm in almost 20 years hit Earth.
The scale of the geomagnetic storm is the largest in two decades and the effects will likely last several days.
The lights first became visible in Shropshire at around 10.30pm on Friday as a faint violet and green patch in the sky, by 11.30pm people were widley reporting seeing them across the county.
May people took photos of the spectaular display, whilst it was visible with the naked eye cameras and mobile phones captured it better, because they adapt to different wave lengths better than our eyes.
Many of those who did take photos took to our facebook page to share their images in the comments, click below to take a look.
What are the Northern Lights?
The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, are a natural light display in the Earth’s sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky.
They are caused by the collision of charged particles from the sun with atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. These collisions cause the atmospheric particles to release energy in the form of light. The color of the aurora depends on the type of gas particle that is excited. Oxygen emissions typically produce green or red auroras, while nitrogen emissions produce a blue or violet color.
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