NEW YORK (PIX11) – It’s the kind of nighttime light show that people tend to associate with the skies above Iceland or the boreal forests of Canada. Still, the Northern Lights were visible in all their multi-colored glory on Thursday night here in our region.
There’s a chance for an encore on Friday.
In addition, the Friday night light show may include a comet in a rare and remarkable night sky extravaganza.
The incredible images of the lights-in-the-sky phenomenon were many. They were posted across various social media platforms, with locators in places not ordinarily associated with Northern Lights.
They were in the city’s five boroughs or from suburban New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Jackie Faherty, the senior research scientist and education manager at the American Museum of Natural History, explained how the Tri-state got the light show. She was asked to do so in terms that anyone could understand, and Dr. Faherty delivered.
“The sun is in an active period,” Faherty, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, said, “and when it’s active, the sun, it burps.”
Ahead of Thursday night’s light show, she continued, “It was a big burp, and the big burp meant that sending our way was a lot of charged particles. They cascade down.”
That cascade was seen in bright colors when the particles interacted with Earth’s magnetic sphere.
Julia Hrysenko, a resident of Inwood, Manhattan, saw it from her living room.
“I stick my head out the window thinking, ‘I can’t see a lot,'” Hrysenko began, “but I see what appears to be a violet, purple glow . [I] grab my phone, take a whole bunch of pictures, and then was shocked to see this beautiful, violet, glow right over my park. So I was thrilled,” she said.
Rick Wawrzyszuk noticed the lights flashing in the skies above his apartment in Brooklyn and started taking images with his smartphone.
“Using your phone,” he said, “you can see things like this a lot clearer, but it was, like, visible.”
Wawrzyszuk discussed what many people mentioned on social media: that the lights appeared more bright and clear on camera.
That’s because cameras, even smartphones, have sensors that allow more light to come through the lens in low light than the naked eye can see.
The results were great and may be repeated on Friday night. Also, on Friday, comet C/2023 A3, nicknamed Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will possibly be visible along with the Northern Lights.
Faherty, the astrophysicist from the Museum of Natural History, said the potential double light show is worth everyone’s time.
“I really want to encourage people to go and give it a go,” she said, encouraging people to look up into the night sky on Friday. “Use your cameraphone and just take a long exposure, and see what’s in your sky at that moment.”
On Saturday, the comet, which only passes by Earth every 80,000 years, is expected to be closest to Earth and may even be visible while the sun is out.
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