An overdue Solar flare struck Earth's magnetic field on Sunday evening (3rd March) and has sparked a minor geomagnetic storm that has created some spectacular northern lights in the sky above Penrith and across Cumbria tonight.
A Sunspot named AR3590, recently unleashed the solar flare towards Earth that was expected to arrive on Saturday.
Over the past two weeks, astronomers have been captivated by the sheer magnitude of Sunspot AR3590, that created a temporary dark area on the Sun's surface resulting from intense magnetic activity before blasting out the solar flare.
If you missed tonights light show above Penrith don’t worry the next year is likely to see a few more as the Sun is currently entering the the peak of Solar Cycle 25 and over the next few months astronomers believe we will see some huge solar flares heading in earth direction creating more northern lights as they crash into the earth magnetic field producing the northern lights.
Did you capture the light show we would love to see and share your pictures and videos of it.
Thanks to Sandra Stolker for these two photos.