Nasa releases picture of mysterious ‘dragon’ aurora rearing its head in the sky
by Jasper Hamill
A view0 of the mysterious dragon aurora snapped in Iceland on February 18 (Photo: Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng)
NASA has released incredible pictures of an unusual ‘dragon’ aurora roaring silently in the sky over Iceland.
The stunning natural wonder was caused by particles emited from the sun which smash into the atmosphere to cause a dramatic light display.
Nasa wrote: ‘Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don’t exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland earlier this month.
‘The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun’s corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth’s magnetosphere.
‘As some of those particles then struck Earth’s atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora.
‘This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer’s mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground.