Cosmos Aurora Iceland
The sky over Iceland in 2019. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun’s corona that expelled charged particles into a solar windthat followed a changing interplanetary magnetic fieldto Earth’s magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth’s atmosphere, they excited atomswhich 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. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximumapproaches in 2025.