Recently, social media exploded with gorgeous, awe-inspiring photos taken from around the world, depicting bright ribbons of color pulsating in the night sky. While most people have seen images of these auroras before, typically they're taken in areas closer to Earth's poles — which is why the ones that usually appear in the more populated areas are dubbed the northern lights. What was different this time around, to the delight of many who don't live closer to the Arctic Circle, is that the auroras were appearing across a much wider region of the planet — as far south as Southern California.
That's because auroras are caused by solar storms — huge bursts of energy ejected from the Sun — and the solar storm that caused these not-so-northern lights was unusually strong. Earth is constantly in the path of solar energy as it heads out into the cosmos, and when that energy is stronger than usual, from a solar storm, it can interact with our planet's magnetic field and atmosphere and cause a geomagnetic storm. This can impact the Earth in several ways , affecting power grids, satellites, communication systems, navigational equipment, and more.
If you're wondering how an astronomical event originating 93 million miles away can both dazzle the night sky with beautiful colors while also potentially causing serious damage to our infrastructure, fortunately you don't need a PhD in physics to grasp the basic reasoning behind the phenomenon. While it may seem like a far-out concep.