                APOD: 2018 April 10 - Dragon Aurora over Norway

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 April 10
                                      [2]
                          Dragon Aurora over Norway
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Bastoni [3]

Explanation: What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal hole [4]
opened last month, a few days before this image was taken, throwing a cloud of
fast moving electrons [5] , protons [6] , and ions [7]  toward the Earth [8] .
Some of this cloud impacted our Earth's magnetosphere [9] and resulted in
spectacular auroras [10]  being seen at high northern latitudes. Featured here
is a particularly photogenic auroral curtain [11]  captured above Troms [12]
Norway [13] . To the astrophotographer, this shimmering green glow [14]  of
recombining atmospheric oxygen [15] appeared as a large dragon [16] , but feel
free to share [17]  what it looks like [18]  to you. Although now past Solar
Maximum [19] , our Sun [20]  continues to show occasional activity [21]
creating impressive auroras [22]  on Earth visible even last week [23] .

                      Tomorrow's picture: far star [24]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [36] (MTU [37] ) & Jerry Bonnell [38]
                                  (UMCP [39] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [40] .
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              A service of: ASD [42]  at NASA [43]  / GSFC [44]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [45]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1804/DragonAurora_Bastoni_4240.jpg
  [3] mailto: mbastoni @at@ libero .dot. it
  [4] ap020207.html
  [5] https://history.aip.org/exhibits/electron/
  [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton#History
  [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion
  [8] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/
  [9] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/multimedia/magnetosphere.html
  [10] ap160830.html
  [11] ap960619.html
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troms%C3%B8
  [13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway
  [14] ap110328.html
  [15] http://periodic.lanl.gov/8.shtml
  [16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon
  [17] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180410
  [18]
http://www.awesomelycute.com/gallery/2015/04/
clouds-that-look-like-animals-4.jpg
  [19]
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/10jun_solarminimax
  [20]
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/solar-minimum-is-coming
  [21] http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml
  [22] ap110517.html
  [23] http://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html
  [24] ap180411.html
  [25] ap180409.html
  [26] archivepix.html
  [27] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [28] lib/aptree.html
  [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [30] calendar/allyears.html
  [31] /apod.rss
  [32] lib/edlinks.html
  [33] lib/about_apod.html
  [34] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180410
  [35] ap180411.html
  [36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [37] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [38] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [39] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [40] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [41] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [42] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [43] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [44] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [45] http://www.mtu.edu/
