11/02/2025
February 10, 2025, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day featured "Auroral Hummingbird over Norway," captured by photographer Mickael Coulon. The image showcases a vibrant aurora resembling a hummingbird, with detailed and colorful rays reminiscent of feathers. This aurora was so bright that it was visible to the unaided eye during the blue hour, just after sunset when the sky appears a darkening blue. However, the aurora only looked like a hummingbird through a sensitive camera able to pick up faint glows. Auroras are created when an explosion on the Sun causes high-energy particles to flow into the Earth's atmosphere and excite atoms and molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The image was captured above Lyngseidt, Norway.
