Gorgeous Glow! Green Aurora Shines over Glimmering Lake

Milky Way and Aurora from Banff National Park — Astrophotographer Deepanshu Arora took this image from Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. The image also shows our glittering Milky Way above the mountains. (Image credit: Deepanshu Arora | PhotosByDeepanshu)

A golden-green Aurora shines over Moraine Lake in this skywatcher image.

Astrophotographer Deepanshu Arora took this image from Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. The image also shows the glittering Milky Way above the mountains.

"When I was up at Moraine Lake, shooting pictures of our galaxy, I noticed that the snow on the Ten Peaks had green tint," Arora wrote in an email to Space.com.

"At first I thought it is just the white balance issue, but then I noticed a narrow gray stripe waving in air in [the] west direction," he said. "I didn't realize that it was Aurora Borealis (as I was expecting northern lights to be in north) until I took a picture of it."

Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun's solar wind interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, at altitudes above 50 miles (80 kilometers), causing a glow. The particles are funneled to Earth's polar regions by the planet's magnetic field. The auroras over the North Pole are known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. The lights over the South Pole are dubbed the aurora australis, or southern lights.

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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.