On the night of August 12, the aurora borealis was again seen over Ukraine. Amateurs watching the sky saw it over several regions of our country. Also tonight, the Perseids meteor shower could be seen in the sky, which has almost reached its maximum.
Aurora over Ukraine
On the night of August 11-12, the aurora borealis was again seen over Ukraine. It was observed over Odesa, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad and several other oblasts of Ukraine. Photographers took amazing photos of this event.
In fact, there is nothing incredible about this event. Just a few days ago, a series of powerful flares occurred on the Sun. Our luminary is just now passing the maximum of the 25th cycle of activity, so such events occur there regularly. High-energy charged particles are regularly ejected into outer space and sometimes reach Earth.
In this case, they interact with its magnetosphere and head toward the polar zones. There they transfer their energy to the atmosphere, eliminating its luminescence. This is what we call the aurora borealis. Despite the name, these phenomena can be observed even much to the south of Ukraine during particularly powerful flares.
Perseids
It should be noted that not every powerful solar flare causes aurora borealis over Ukraine. Not in every case charged particles are headed our way. And when they hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, the glow doesn’t always appear just above us. This time we were lucky.
It was twice as lucky. The Perseids meteor shower reaches its maximum at this time. The two events are not related to each other, but their coincidence is a very rare thing indeed, so all starry sky photography enthusiasts were able to get some really amazing shots this time.
It is worth noting that neither the meteor shower nor the aurora bore any danger in itself. However, a magnetic storm is usually observed simultaneously with the latter. It can cause disruption to communications and electrical devices on the surface of our planet.
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