If you’ve never seen the Northern Lights — also known as the Aurora Borealis — in your lifetime, and you live in parts of the northern United States and Canada, tonight’s your chance to take in one more night of the ethereal wonder that has many skywatchers and stargazers packing their bags and heading out to the most extreme northern part of the world to catch a glimpse of this spectacular show.
Thanks to a massive solar flare eruption just before midnight EST on October 23rd, visibility of the Northern Lights has been extended through this evening, Friday, October 25th. According to NOAA, tonight is its peak night before it tapers off for the weekend.
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Sun’s 11-Year Cycle Is at Its Most Active Right Now Which Means More Solar Flares and More Northern Lights
This year, the Aurora Borealis has put on an incredible display, giving stargazers an abundance of opportunities to witness their colorful auras, which light up the night sky around the world. That’s because the sun is at its most active right now.
The sun goes through an 11-year cycle, and its cycle began in December 2019, according to NASA. During this period, the sun’s poles essentially flip—yes, flip: the North Pole and the South Pole exchange places. When the sun is at its most active stage during its cycle, more solar flares erupt from the fireball in space, creating more Northern Lights for all of us to witness and enjoy. NASA has indicated that the sun reached its peak of its 11-year cycle on October 15th.
“When solar flares encounter the Earth, it actually encounters the magnetic field, and some of that material gets trapped within the magnetosphere,” according to Roland Dechesne, an astronomer with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. “It’s just like magnets we play with as children. Opposite poles attract each other. If you try to put two north poles together, they will repel each other. The same thing is happening out in space.”n
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Aurora Borealist Will Light up Canada’s Sky, and Parts of Northern U.S.
Aurora Borealis forecast for Friday, October 25th between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Canadians and Alaskans are in for a real treat tonight: the Northern Lights will be more prominent over Canada and Alaska between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
For those located in the following states of the U.S.: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, viewers will also have a wonderful view of the Northern Lights as they dance across the night sky.
There may be an opportunity for the Aurora Borealis to travel even further down into the U.S. to locations such as South Dakota, Michigan, and northern Maine. Thanks to the massive “X3.3” solar flare on October 23rd, and NASA’s current report of an incoming Geomantic Storm scheduled for tomorrow, October 26th, this evening may afford many U.S. residents as far down as Texas, Alabama, and Florida, another unique chance to catch the Northern Lights in action, just as they witnessed in May this year.