Every now and then, a lucky few are witness to the magnificent and eerie northern lights. The natural phenomenon, also known as aurora, is a rare product of solar winds manipulating our magnetosphere. The event has fascinated astronomers and travelers for decades, with its brilliant flashes of florescent tones and hypnotic, ghostly hues. It's certainly a beautiful sight to behold, but those wishing to catch a glimpse of the otherworldly experience will need to travel to rather remote ends of our globe - hence the term "northern".
Thankfully, some brave photographers do the work for us, and have ventured with the specific purpose of capturing these moments on film. Most of us have become acquainted to the traditional images of aurora, but a photog from Ontario woke up in the middle of the night and was surprised to see a unique burst of colour in the sky. "We can blame the two-year-old. He started crying at 1:30 a.m., so I got up and soothed him ... and out the window I had the perfect view of these dancing lights in the sky," Timothy Joseph Elzinga told CBC News. "I had to investigate. I got some pants on and ran outside and took some photos."
Elzinga's incredible pictures were shared online, and lead to many people scratching their heads due to the unique appearance of the light. Accordingly to the good people at National Geographic, this type of aurora is known as "light pillars". The columns are born from light particles hitting flat ice on the ground. Of course, this is as layman as the definition can get, so if you fancy yourself a scientist, you can dig into the specifics of the cause by visiting the above link. In the meantime, if you witness this phenomenon, you can rest easy knowing that you're not going to be abducted by a mothership. File this one under "nature is awesome".
