Rare aurora bewitches NSW sky gazers, and could stage encore tonight
The phenomenon is rarely visible far from the poles, but the dancing light bewitched sky gazers as far north as Byron Bay as photographers snapped the pink glow off Sydney's beaches and across NSW from Cooma to Tamworth.
'We were cheering, everybody was 'Oh my god-ing',' said aurora enthusiast David Findlay, who's chased auroras across Tasmania and Antarctica. He watched the sky last night with about 300 spectators from Gerroa in the Illawarra.
Auroras are normally faint in NSW and show up better in photos, but on Sunday the geomagnetic storm was severe enough to spark vivid flashes visible to the naked eye that burned brightly for about 15 minutes, Findlay said.
'Interspersed with these brilliant magenta colours were these very, very bright beams of orange,' he said. 'This is actually the first time I've seen intense orange ... it was the orange aurora!'
There's another chance to catch the spectral spectacular on Monday night as the solar storm rages on.
'The activity may continue into tonight, so aurora watchers should be prepared,' said a co-director of Swinburne University of Technology's Space Technology and Industry Institute, Dr Rebecca Allen.
'Auroras are caused when our sun ejects energetic particles as 'storms'. These particles collide with our magnetic field and smash into the atmosphere near the poles,' Allen said, which is why the phenomenon is normally seen close to the Arctic and Antarctic.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Perth Now
‘Super rare' sight as surprised whale watchers bear witness to humpback birth
A humpback whale has been spotted mid-birth in an extremely rare sighting off Queensland's Gold Coast. A Sea World whale-watching group was surprised to see a humpback whale with a small, pale newborn just outside The Spit seaway, soon after starting a tour from Main Beach on Monday morning. They followed the pair for a few minutes before noticing the mother was bleeding. 'When the mum rolled and showed us her belly, we saw a lot of blood on her body,' crew member Georgia Roberts said. Roberts said they then saw a 'burst of blood' before witnessing the placenta detach. 'We actually realised the placenta had floated to the surface and we all got an amazing look at it,' she said. It was the first time a humpback whale has been witnessed mid-birth on the Gold Coast. 'Super rare, super cool — being there to witness it firsthand was one of the most amazing experiences and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to top it,' Roberts said. The sighting — and footage taken at the time — will now provide documented proof for scientists who had long believed the Gold Coast is a birthing ground for humpback whales. A humpback whale has been witnessed mid-birth off the Gold Coast. Credit: Sea World Humpback whales migrate from their usual habitat in Antarctic waters to warmer waters off northern Australia, including the Gold Coast, where they care for their young over winter. While it has long been presumed many of these calves were born in Gold Coast waters — and not just en route — a local birth has never before been documented. Gold Coast Newborn Calf Study founding researcher Laura Torre, who has been studying humpback calves since 2013, said Monday's sighting 'is huge news scientifically which will be published'. 'We can now confidently say the Gold Coast is a birthing area as well as a calf-care area,' she said. 'Yesterday we witnessed a placenta detach from the mother, which means she had given birth just before the boat arrived that morning.' The pale newborn calf was seen sticking close to its mother. Credit: Sea World Newborn calves lay on top of their mothers, or glide next to them, for the first weeks of life until they get stronger and their muscles develop. 'Babies do not have much swimming ability, so (boats) all need to go slow for the newborns here in June, July and August,' Torres said. Since 2013 there have been more than 300 humpback whale calves documented on the Gold Coast, where mothers spend time nursing and nurturing their young before returning south to Antarctica.
7NEWS
2 days ago
- 7NEWS
‘Super rare' sight as surprised whale watchers bear witness to humpback calf's birth off The Spit seaway on the Gold Coast
A humpback whale has been spotted mid-birth in an extremely rare sighting off Queensland's Gold Coast. A Sea World whale-watching group was surprised to see a humpback whale with a small, pale newborn just outside The Spit seaway, soon after starting a tour from Main Beach on Monday morning. They followed the pair for a few minutes before noticing the mother was bleeding. 'When the mum rolled and showed us her belly, we saw a lot of blood on her body,' crew member Georgia Roberts said. Roberts said they then saw a 'burst of blood' before witnessing the placenta detach. 'We actually realised the placenta had floated to the surface and we all got an amazing look at it,' she said. It was the first time a humpback whale has been witnessed mid-birth on the Gold Coast. 'Super rare, super cool — being there to witness it firsthand was one of the most amazing experiences and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to top it,' Roberts said. The sighting — and footage taken at the time — will now provide documented proof for scientists who had long believed the Gold Coast is a birthing ground for humpback whales. Humpback whales migrate from their usual habitat in Antarctic waters to warmer waters off northern Australia, including the Gold Coast, where they care for their young over winter. While it has long been presumed many of these calves were born in Gold Coast waters — and not just en route — a local birth has never before been documented. Gold Coast Newborn Calf Study founding researcher Laura Torre, who has been studying humpback calves since 2013, said Monday's sighting 'is huge news scientifically which will be published'. 'We can now confidently say the Gold Coast is a birthing area as well as a calf-care area,' she said. 'Yesterday we witnessed a placenta detach from the mother, which means she had given birth just before the boat arrived that morning.' Newborn calves lay on top of their mothers, or glide next to them, for the first weeks of life until they get stronger and their muscles develop. 'Babies do not have much swimming ability, so (boats) all need to go slow for the newborns here in June, July and August,' Torres said. Since 2013 there have been more than 300 humpback whale calves documented on the Gold Coast, where mothers spend time nursing and nurturing their young before returning south to Antarctica.
The Age
7 days ago
- The Age
Mysterious superfast object from beyond our solar system rockets towards the sun
Astronomers are racing to determine the nature of a big, bright, superfast object from beyond our solar system hurtling towards the sun. The European Space Agency said it could be the third-ever confirmed object we've detected in our cosmic neighbourhood that originated from outside our solar system. The agency is monitoring the eccentric path of the ultra-rare interstellar object, provisionally called A11pl3Z, through a network of telescopes across the globe. The object is sailing past Jupiter's orbit at 60 kilometres a second and will fly deep into the solar system, skimming past Mars. 'It's travelling whoppingly fast at an estimated 245,000km/h,' said Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist Sara Webb. 'It is absolutely yeeting it through the solar system.' That sensational speed is the giveaway that this is probably a visitor from beyond our solar system. Asteroid belts and comets orbiting around the sun travel at speeds below the 'escape velocity' of the sun's gravitational pull. Any faster and they'd rocket off into the dark of deep space. 'This object, though, it looks like it is travelling at a speed that would not allow it to remain within our solar system's orbit,' Webb said.
