Florida "Northern Lights" & Northern Taurid Meteor
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Northern lights have come to Florida skies. The brilliant streak of a Northern Taurid meteor flashes through the starry night sky above the beach in this sea and skyscape, captured from Shired Island, Florida, on November 11, 2025. Meteors from the annual Northern Taurid meteor shower are expected this time of year. However, the digital camera exposure also records the shimmering glow of aurora, a phenomenon more often seen from our fair planet's higher geographical latitudes. Also known as aurora borealis, these northern lights are part of recent, wide spread auroral activity caused by strong geomagnetic storms. In the last few days, these storms have been triggered by multiple Earth impacting coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and intense solar activity.
The Taurids are an annual meteor shower, associated with the comet Encke. The Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Southern and a Northern component. The Southern Taurids originated from Comet Encke, while the Northern Taurids originated from the asteroid 2004 TG10, possibly a large fragment of Encke due to its similar orbital parameters. They are named after their radiant point in the constellation Taurus, where they are seen to come from in the sky. Because of their occurrence in late October and early November, they are also called Halloween fireballs. Since 2P/Encke is such a short period comet, the meteors have the slowest impact speed of the annual well-known meteor showers.
Auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth's magnetic field, creating dazzling light shows in the sky. The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.
https://www.aurorasaurus.org
https://science.nasa.gov/feature/nasas-guide-to-finding-and-photographing-auroras/
Image Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Release Date: Nov. 14, 2025
#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Sun #SolarSystem #SolarWind #Planet #Earth #Magnetosphere #GeomagneticStorms #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #Asteroids #Meteors #TauridMeteors #Taurus #Constellations #Astrophotography #SamilCabrera #Astrophotographers #ShiredIsland #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
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