The UK under a curtain of aurora

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured some stunning views of a Soyuz capsule returning to Earth bringing home a space station crew.

On 15th March, a coronal mass ejection from the Sun launched a torrent of charged particles in the direction of Earth. The gaseous cloud collided with our planet’s magnetic field two days later, generating this glorious, shimmering auroral curtain over Iceland photographed by Carlos Gauna.

Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter’s polar regions that contribute to the giant planet’s powerful aurora – only not in ways the researchers expected.