![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2015\/10\/a_spooky_skyscape_to_celebrate_halloween\/15654429-1-eng-GB\/A_spooky_skyscape_to_celebrate_Halloween_small.jpg\")
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\nEerie sheets and ripples of green hang above a deserted rocky landscape in this spooky Space Science Image of the Week. Spikes of neon and emerald seem to form the ominous form of a ghostly celestial eagle, with a sharp beak, bright head and majestic outstretched wings.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhile this photograph may resemble paranormal happenings or alien activity, the dramatic skyscape shown here is actually due to a much more common astronomical event known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.\n<\/p>\n
\nThis scene was captured on 24 January 2012 above Grotfjord, Norway, by photographer Bj\u00f8rn J\u00f8rgensen. The day before, the Sun flung a burst of high-speed charged particles \u2013 electrons, protons and other ions \u2013 out into space. Large CMEs can contain up to a billion tonnes of matter, all streaming through space at speeds of up to 2000 km\/s.\n<\/p>\n
\nThese particles sped towards Earth and some of them became trapped within our planet\u2019s magnetosphere, a region of space in which charged particles are contained by Earth\u2019s magnetic field.\n<\/p>\n
\nThese particles then began to rain down into our atmosphere, smashing into atoms and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the process. These collisions release large amounts of energy in the form of light, painting distinctive colours in the sky.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe colour depends on the particle hit. The most common colours are the reddish-blue of nitrogen and the red or greenish-yellow hues of atomic and molecular oxygen (as seen here). These colours can mix to produce striking shades of orange, yellow, pink and purple.\n<\/p>\n
\nBecause of their speed and particle density, CMEs often trigger stunning auroral displays. When the Sun is particularly active it can produce several CMEs per day, dropping to roughly one every five days at lower activity levels. On average, between one and four CMEs hit Earth each month; these are called \u201cHalo CMEs\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\nA flotilla of spacecraft, including the ESA-led SOHO<\/a>, Proba-2<\/a> and Cluster<\/a> missions, monitor the Sun and its effects on our home planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nEerie sheets and ripples of green hang above a deserted rocky landscape in this spooky Space Science Image of the Week. Spikes of neon and emerald seem to form the ominous form of a ghostly celestial eagle, with a sharp beak, bright head and majestic outstretched wings.\n<\/p>\n \nWhile this photograph may resemble paranormal happenings or alien activity, the dramatic skyscape shown here is actually due to a much more common astronomical event known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.\n<\/p>\n \nThis scene was captured on 24 January 2012 above Grotfjord, Norway, by photographer Bj\u00f8rn J\u00f8rgensen. The day before, the Sun flung a burst of high-speed charged particles \u2013 electrons, protons and other ions \u2013 out into space. Large CMEs can contain up to a billion tonnes of matter, all streaming through space at speeds of up to 2000 km\/s.\n<\/p>\n \nThese particles sped towards Earth and some of them became trapped within our planet\u2019s magnetosphere, a region of space in which charged particles are contained by Earth\u2019s magnetic field.\n<\/p>\n \nThese particles then began to rain down into our atmosphere, smashing into atoms and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the process. These collisions release large amounts of energy in the form of light, painting distinctive colours in the sky.\n<\/p>\n \nThe colour depends on the particle hit. The most common colours are the reddish-blue of nitrogen and the red or greenish-yellow hues of atomic and molecular oxygen (as seen here). These colours can mix to produce striking shades of orange, yellow, pink and purple.\n<\/p>\n \nBecause of their speed and particle density, CMEs often trigger stunning auroral displays. When the Sun is particularly active it can produce several CMEs per day, dropping to roughly one every five days at lower activity levels. On average, between one and four CMEs hit Earth each month; these are called \u201cHalo CMEs\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \nA flotilla of spacecraft, including the ESA-led SOHO<\/a>, Proba-2<\/a> and Cluster<\/a> missions, monitor the Sun and its effects on our home planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=235660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n