NASA: Wow! Mesmerizing image of Northern Lights shared by astronomer | Tech News

NASA: Wow! Mesmerizing image of Northern Lights shared by astronomer

NASA’s astronomy picture of the day is an enthralling image of the Northern Lights or Auroras over Northern Canada.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Oct 10 2022, 15:12 IST
Wow! Second by second account of NASA craft crashing on Asteroid; check in photos
NASA
1/5 NASA’s Double Asteroid Detection Test or DART test is a nearly $330 million mission to smash a spacecraft into the Dimorphos asteroid to deflect it away from its path. NASA had already sent the DART spacecraft to space in November, 2021 which included a satellite made by the Italian Space Agency. (Bloomberg)
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2/5 This stunning photo was captured 2.5 minutes before collision with the target Asteroid Dimorphos. According to NASA, the target asteroid Dimorphos is an asteroid moonlet nearly 530 feet in width. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, nearly 5 times its size. (Reuters)
NASA
3/5 This amazing image was captured just 11 seconds before the impact. captured through cameras of a small companion satellite, which was the spacecraft’s camera called cubeSAT LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids), was ejected from the DART spacecraft and followed it, 3 minutes behind, to the target asteroid Dimorphos. (Reuters)
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4/5 This extremely close-up image of the surface of target asteroid Dimorphos was captured just 2 seconds before impact with the asteroid. The DRACO system along with Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation (SMART Nav) algorithms aboard the DART spacecraft allowed it to distinguish between the larger Didymos and its target Dimorphos, striking the asteroid with precision accuracy, according to NASA. (Reuters)
NASA
5/5 Although the spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid, there is no clarity as yet whether the asteroid was actually deflected. To confirm that, European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will observe the impact caused by the collision of DART spacecraft and Dimorphos asteroid. The space agency has already launched its Hera spacecraft which will travel to the same asteroid to observe the impact. (ESA)
NASA
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Check out this stunning image of Northern Lights captured by astronomer Kwon O Chul. (TWAN/Kwon O Chul)

Although geomagnetic storms can cause various effects which have the potential to harm Earth, they're also the reason behind one of the most beautiful natural phenomena - Northern Lights. Auroras or Northern lights are shifting curtains of light in greens, blues and pinks which light up the night sky in the Northern and Southern poles. They are called Northern Lights or Aurora Borelis in the North Pole and Southern Lights or Aurora Australis in the South Pole. Although they are often caused by Geomagnetic storms, auroras are a sight to behold for astronomers as well as night-sky watchers.

NASA releases its Astronomy image of the day on a daily basis. Today's image is a mesmerizing snapshot of Auroras captured over the night sky in Northern Canada. The image was captured by astronomer Kwon O Chul, a Korean-based astrophotographer, as part of the TWAN initiative. The World At Night (TWAN) is an international effort to present stunning night photos and timelapse videos of the world's landmarks against celestial attractions.

Kwon O Chul posted an explanation with the image, “Gusting solar winds and blasts of charged particles from the Sun resulted in several rewarding nights of auroras back in 2014 December, near the peak of the last 11-year solar cycle. The featured image captured dramatic auroras stretching across a sky near the town of Yellowknife in northern Canada. The auroras were so bright that they not only inspired awe, but were easily visible on an image exposure of only 1.3 seconds.”

“A video taken concurrently shows the dancing sky lights evolving in real time as tourists, many there just to see auroras, respond with cheers. The conical dwellings on the image right are tipis, while far in the background, near the image center, is the constellation of Orion. Auroras may increase again over the next few years as our Sun again approaches solar maximum,” Chul further explained in the post.

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First Published Date: 10 Oct, 15:09 IST
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