In a cruel twist of irony for those of us who spent last night watching House of Cards ‘Chapter 32’ – in which the Underwoods fly to Russia on Air Force One and are so captivated by the Aurora Borealis that, for a second, they forget that “they’re murderers, Francis” – instead of staring up at the sky in wonderment, Australians who were paying attention last night were apparently blessed enough to bear witness to the singular meteorological phenomenon that is the Aurora Australis. The rest of us missed out.
A phenomenon that you’d think you’d usually have to travel to Iceland to appreciate, the Aurora Australis is, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, caused when “electrically charged electrons and protons accelerate down the Earth’s magnetic field lines and collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere.” Qué?
“These collisions cause the neutral atoms to fluoresce, emitting light at many different wavelengths. The most common aurora colours are red and green, caused by the fluorescence of oxygen atoms, while nitrogen atoms can throw bluish-purple lights into the mix.”
Or, in Netflix parlance, a sight the splendour of which is rivalled only by everything about Robin Wright’s performance in House of Cards, I guess.
If you weren’t staring at a screen, took photos of the Aurora ‘Straya IRL and you have nothing better to do, shout out to us on Twitter.
#AuroraAustralis from Goulburn NSW this morning. @VanessaOHanlon @ABCenvironment @RichardMcLellan @wccom @astroduff pic.twitter.com/PBCQ5YMBYO
— David Finlay (@ClearSkiesTV) March 17, 2015
Just a quick edit of one of my photos from early this morning.. #AuroraAustralis #WesternAustralia pic.twitter.com/xbnePcLeOU
— Paul Pichugin (@paulmp) March 17, 2015
If u went to bed last night, u missed this. 🙂 #AuroraAustralis from my backyard in #Kiama @EpicCosmos @TamithaSkov pic.twitter.com/VqwjVlmlaE
— Photography by Rudi (@rudiphoto) March 17, 2015
via The ABC
Photo: Xavier Hoenner via Getty
