View from space: Aurora stretching across Quebec and Ontario on October 8

An orbiting satellite acquired this view of the beautiful aurora borealis, or northern lights, on the North American morning of October 8, 2012. The lights were caused by a storm on the sun several days earlier. The northern lights in this photo stretch across Canada’s Quebec and Ontario provinces.

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite acquired this image of the northern lights, which resulted from eruption on the sun’s surface on October 4, 2012. That solar eruption sent a coronal mass ejection or CME – a plasma of charged electrons and protons from the sun – hurtling toward Earth. A few days later, the storm from the sun caused a geomagnetic storm on Earth, as the solar particles struck our planet’s magnetic field. In other words, it stirred up the magnetic field and produced gorgeous displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

Photos from friends: Beautiful auroras stretching across the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario on the North American morning of October 8, 2012

Read more about this photo from NASA