Celestial Extravaganza – Skies painted red!

Have you ever heard that the colour of the sky is red? You heard it right, few days back sky was literally red at Mongolia. Few days ago, in an extraordinary celestial display, the skies over Mongolia turned deep, red as the country experienced one of the rarest auroral events.

The intense colouration is attributed to the initial impact of a significant solar storm that collided with Earth. The phenomenon, known as an Aurora, typically occurs closer to the poles and is often green in colour. This occurance of Auroras happens due to solar charged particle streams enter the Earth’s magnetic field.

The auroras seen in Mongolia were of a striking crimson hue, a rarity caused by the interaction of solar particles with oxygen at high altitudes, over 241 kilometres above the Earth's surface, where the atmosphere is much thinner. At such great heights, the density of oxygen is lower, and the collisions occur less frequently, resulting in the emission of red light rather than the more common green. This process is akin to the operation of neon lights, where excited gas atoms release photons of light upon returning to their ground state.

The occurrence of the red aurora in Mongolia has provided scientists with a unique opportunity to study the effects of solar storms at lower latitudes. While the sight may be mesmerizing, it also serves as a reminder of the Sun's immense power and the potential impact of solar weather on our planet.