
On the night of Nov. 5, 2001, eerie lights suddenly appeared over the skies of America. I was closing up for the night at the Cincinnati Observatory. At my car, I looked up. The sky was green! After a moment of disbelief, it dawned on me: I was seeing the northern lights.
Typically, the northern lights are only visible around Alaska, Canada and the Arctic Circle. But earlier that week, a massive solar storm rocketed off the sun. Some 93 million miles later, that solar material slammed into Earth's magnetic field and created the dazzling light show I witnessed.
To see some pictures from that rare outburst 20 years ago, go to bit.ly/aurorapictures. And to keep up on when another solar storm might trigger northern lights in your area at spaceweather.com.
More from Dean Regas, our astronomy expert 🔭🌕
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