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Northern Lights: Incredible Nasa footage shows rising sun meeting Aurora Borealis over the US

The sun can be seen rising from the east before meeting the lights

Lamiat Sabin
Saturday 07 February 2015 10:07 GMT
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The Northern Lights meeting the sun that is rising in the east
The Northern Lights meeting the sun that is rising in the east

Stunning footage released by Nasa reveals the glory of the Northern Lights meeting the sunrise over the north east coast of the US.

The video clip – which was taken from the International Space Station on Thursday – shows a haze of green, yellow and orange colours from the Northern Hemisphere polar light show.

Nasa filmed the footage over Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts before the clip was sped up and posted online.

Northern Lights is the common name for Aurora Borealis, a light show of varying colours caused by collisions between electrically-charged particles from the sun that enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

The lights occur near the magnetic poles and are known as Aurora Australis in the Southern Hemisphere. They can be watched from the ground during clear nights.

Nasa, which stands for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, posted the video with the caption “‘#sunrise touches #aurora. All we need now are angels singing’ #AstroButch”.

It is a reference to astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore who is one of the six crew members currently on board the ISS.

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