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- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
- Musk finally unveiling his long-promised robotaxi
- London's Frieze art fair goes potty for ceramics
- US, Europe stocks fall on US inflation data
- US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September
- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
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- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
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- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
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- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
Scientist Jim Wild has travelled to the Arctic Circle numerous times to study the northern lights, but on Thursday night he only needed to look out of his bedroom window in the English city of Lancaster.
For at least the second time this year, skygazers in many parts of the world were treated to colourful auroras at latitudes beyond the polar extremes where they normally light up the skies.
The dazzling celestial shows were caused by a gigantic ball of plasma -- and an accompanying magnetic field -- which erupted from the Sun earlier this week.
When this eruption, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), arrived at Earth at around 1600 GMT on Thursday, it triggered a strong geomagnetic storm.
This storm in turn sparked northern and southern lights -- aurora borealis and aurora australis -- in swathes of Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.
While Wild could see the shimmering reds and greens from his back garden, he jumped in the car with his family to get a better look away from the bright lights of Lancaster.
"All the little back roads and parking spots were full of people with flasks of coffee and deck chairs looking at the northern lights," he told AFP.
"It was a party atmosphere," he said, comparing the scenes to UFO spotters looking up at the sky in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
While Wild was explaining the phenomenon to his 11- and 13-year-old children, another nearby skygazer approached and asked how come he knew so much about it.
"Well, actually, this is what I study for a living," responded the professor in space physics at Lancaster University, who specialises in how solar weather disrupts power grids and transport here on Earth.
- 'Perfect hit' -
Auroras were also visible across northern Europe, including near London and Berlin, and as far south in the US as the state of Virginia. In the Southern Hemisphere, areas of Australia and New Zealand were also treated to a show, AFP photos showed.
The CME that triggered Thursday's auroras erupted from a spot on the Sun pointed directly at Earth, said Juha-Pekka Luntama, the head of the European Space Agency's Space Weather Office.
"It was a perfect hit," he told AFP.
The CME caused a "severe" geomagnetic storm given a rating of G4. This fell narrowly short of the highest level of G5, which was seen in May, when auroras delighted many skygazers across swathes of the world.
Storms on the Sun have been intensifying as solar activity approaches -- or may have already reached -- the peak of its 11-year cycle.
While such storms offer pretty light shows for skygazers, they can pose a serious threat to satellites, GPS services, power grids and even astronauts in space.
The US Space Weather Prediction Center warned on Thursday that the geomagnetic storm could disrupt emergencies services already stretched thin by deadly hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Luntama said the European Space Agency had not received any information about disruptions caused by the latest storm, but sometimes this can take days.
The storm is "gradually dissipating", he added, which means that any auroras on Friday night or over the weekend will likely be farther north in Europe, such as central Sweden.
- 'Delighted' -
But for those still hoping to see an aurora, there could be some more chances in the next couple of years.
Luntama explained that during past solar cycles, the biggest eruptions have come in the two years after the Sun passed its peak.
Wild also did not expect a repeat of Thursday's "magical" display.
But space weather -- like Earth's weather -- is not an "exact art," he emphasised.
And if there is an aurora lighting up the sky nearby, it is worth seeking out.
Wild said his neighbours had travelled to Norway twice to see the northern lights -- but had been foiled by clouds both times.
Then on Thursday night, they saw an aurora from their garden.
"They were really delighted to finally have seen it," Wild said.
Y.Jeong--CPN