Did you catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights this weekend? If you didn’t manage to see the colourful display in the sky, you might be wondering if there’s another chance to see them tonight (May 13).
While lots of people across the UK were able to see at the weekend, it’s not everyday you get to see the sky light up with impressive purples and greens.
Here’s what we know about the Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis, and if they’ll return to our skies tonight.
What makes the Northern Lights visible in our skies?
The light is “caused by activity on the surface of the Sun”, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich website.
It adds: “Solar storms on our star's surface give out huge clouds of electrically charged particles. These particles can travel millions of miles, and some may eventually collide with the Earth.
“Most of these particles are deflected away, but some become captured in the Earth’s magnetic field, accelerating down towards the north and south poles into the atmosphere. This is why aurora activity is concentrated at the magnetic poles.”
Royal Observatory astronomer Tom Kerss explained: “These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially heat them up”.
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He added: “We call this physical process ‘excitation’, but it’s very much like heating a gas and making it glow.”
So, in the sky, we see the atmosphere’s atoms and molecules “colliding with particles from the Sun.”
The lines of force in the Earth’s magnetic field are what cause the wavy patterns and ‘curtains’ of light in the sky.
Minor geomagnetic activity. Issued 2024-05-13 10:30 UTC (11:30 BST) by @aurorawatchuk. #aurora pic.twitter.com/h98ZnDqtAH
— AuroraWatch UK (@aurorawatchuk) May 13, 2024
Will the Northern Lights be visible in the UK tonight?
AuroraWatch UK has shared with its X, formerly Twitter, followers the likelihood of seeing the Northern Lights again tonight but it’s not looking good.
Earlier today at 5.27am the X account posted graphs showing the likelihood and there was some hope as it captioned the post saying: “Amber alert: possible aurora.”
However, at 11.30am, a new post updated the likeliness with pictures of the updated graphs with the caption: “Minor geomagnetic activity.”
This suggests it's currently unlikely that we’ll see the Northern Lights in the sky tonight.
You can keep up to date with when the Northern Lights are due to be visible in the UK via the AuroraWatch UK website and X page.
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