Planetary science

Last night, the northern lights, or aurora borealis, made a stunning appearance in the skies over Bulgaria. A powerful solar flare triggered this extraordinary display, filling the atmosphere with vibrant shades of red, pink, blue, and green.

Discovered just a month and a half ago, on August 7, an asteroid is now approaching Earth’s orbit and will arrive on Sunday, September 29.

For about two months, this small cosmic companion will move parallel with Earth as both orbit the Sun. This unusual celestial visitor is a Near Earth Object (NEO), a category that includes small celestial bodies like asteroids and comets.

Astronaut Matthew Dominick, currently on the International Space Station (ISS), captured an impressive video of the Northern Lights.

In the astronaut’s timelapse video, it shows the Moon setting and the Sun rising amid “streams of red and green auroras.”

Much like the Moon is to Earth, many planets are tidally locked to their suns, meaning that the planet takes the same amount of time to spin on its axis as it does to orbit the sun

Tourists normally have to pay big money and brave cold climates for a chance to see an aurora, but last weekend many people around the world simply had to look up to see these colourful displays dance across the sky.

Auroras could light up skies across swaths of the planet for the second night in a row on Saturday, after already dazzling Earthlings from the United States to Tasmania to the Bahamas the day before.

A potent geomagnetic storm, the most formidable in two decades, has struck, instigated by successive coronal mass ejections from the Sun. Initially forecasted at a four-degree intensity, the storm's actual magnitude surpassed expectations, raising concerns among American experts.

The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular celestial light shows from Tasmania to Britain — and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend.

Astronomers worldwide have issued a warning about an imposing celestial object known as '2013 NK4', set to make a close approach to Earth. According to reports from Earth Sky, this significant space rock, with a diameter of approximately 2000 feet, is expected to be visible through a small telescope as it passes at a distance eight times that between Earth and the Moon.

NASA satellite photos capturing African dust from space - Dust up to the end of May