来自平流层的北极光
(原标题: Northern Lights from the Stratosphere)
2024-01-18
浏览次数: 17
北极光在地球平流层的夜空中闪耀，拍摄于1月15日。这张5秒曝光的照片是在加拿大温尼伯上空的一架飞机上用手持相机拍摄的。在曝光过程中，下面的地面灯光沿着高速飞行的飞机的运动方向留下了彩色的轨迹。在更远的地平线上，高能粒子沿着地球极地地区的磁场加速，激发原子氧，形成了闪烁的北极光。极光特有的绿色是在海拔100-300公里的地方产生的，而红色是在海拔更高和大气密度更低的地方产生的。昏暗的恒星沿着我们银河系的平面发出明亮的光芒，而仙女座星系将这张北部的天景延伸到河外空间。仙女座星系是离银河系最近的大螺旋星系，在图片左上方可以看到它的漫射。
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Northern lights shine in this night skyview from planet Earth's stratosphere, captured on January 15. The single, 5 second exposure was made with a hand-held camera on board an aircraft above Winnipeg, Canada. During the exposure, terrestrial lights below leave colorful trails along the direction of motion of the speeding aircraft. Above the more distant horizon, energetic particles accelerated along Earth's magnetic field at the planet's polar regions excite atomic oxygen to create the shimmering display of Aurora Borealis. The aurora's characteristic greenish hue is generated at altitudes of 100-300 kilometers and red at even higher altitudes and lower atmospheric densities. The luminous glow of faint stars along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy arcs through the night, while the Andromeda galaxy extends this northern skyview to extragalactic space. A diffuse hint of Andromeda, the closest large spiral to the Milky Way, can just be seen to the upper left.
© Ralf Rohner