Auroras in Night Sky Self-Destructing in Pulsating Display
Bizarre blobs of glowing light were spotted floating in Europe's night sky in the aftermath of a solar storm, mystifying viewers. These were actually proton auroras, caused by Earth's invisible planetary rings made of electricity, called ring currents. They consist of electrically charged ions, which flow around the Earth in a massive ring of electrical current. During particularly strong geomagnetic storms, caused by the plume of solar plasma from a CME hitting the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, protons from this ring system can rain down on our planet. This causes a secondary shower of electrons that react with gases in our atmosphere, causing these strangely behaving auroras.