Northern Lights Dance Over Maine Farmhouse in Stunning Photo

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Aurora Over Maine Farmhouse by Taylor
Mike Taylor sent SPACE.com this photo of an aurora over a farmhouse in central Maine. He captured the image on Dec. 7, 2013 at 11:30 p.m. local time using a Nikon D600 camera and 14-24 mm at 14, f/2.8, 30 seconds, ISO 3200. The Andromeda Galaxy and a section of the Milky Way can also be spotted in this the image. The photo was processed through Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5. (Image credit: © Mike Taylor - Taylor Photography )

Pink and green lights shimmer over a farmhouse in central Maine in this beautiful photo sent in to SPACE.com by a veteran night sky photographer this month.

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Vivid northern lights like those seen in this image are caused by charged particles from the sun (the solar wind) that interact with the Earth's upper atmosphere. The Earth's magnetic field draws these charged particles to either the North or South Pole, resulting in aurora borealis, or northern lights, and its southern counterpart the aurora australis, or southern lights. [Amazing Aurora Photos of 2013 by Stargazers]

To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by SPACE.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

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Nina Sen
Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.