Aurora australis makes stunning return to southern Australian skies

A spectacular display of the aurora australis lit up Tasmania’s night sky with people across the state flooding social media with stunning images of cosmic event.

The natural phenomena could be seen from mainland Australia with people as far as Ballina in New South Wales posting photos of magenta skies.

University of Tasmania professor of astrophysics Andrew Cole said Tasmania was the gateway to the world’s most southern wilderness.

Professor Cole said Tasmania’s unique location was a front-row seat to the greatest light show on Earth – the Southern Lights.

“Outer space is filled with electrically charged particles,” he said.

“When they hit the Earth’s atmosphere, they can make it light up like a fluorescent light tube.

“This tends to happen in the polar regions, where Earth’s magnetic field is trapping the charge.”

Professor Cole said the cosmic light show occurred when a stream of protons and electrons from the sun moved past the Earth at several hundred kilometres per second.

“When electrons encounter the Earth’s magnetic field, they become trapped, moving along the field lines to the poles,” he said.

“The magnetic field funnels the electrons into the atmosphere in the polar regions and they strike atoms of oxygen or nitrogen molecules.

He said in the low-density upper atmosphere, the atoms only lost this energy by emitting light, which created the glow that could be seen. “Green and red come from oxygen at different altitudes, and violet comes from nitrogen,” professor Cole said.

“There’s light in other colours as well, but the atomic physics and the eye’s sensitivity mean that red, green and violet are the colours we can see.”

Glenorchy resident Annie Benham said she did not expect to walk out of her garage and come face-to-face with one of the best auroras she had ever seen.

“It was too good not to share it so I ran around knocking on neighbours doors,” she said.

“We stood outside in awe.”

The spectacular light show took place between 8pm and 9pm on Friday with those lucky enough to see the cosmic display saying what an awesome show Mother Nature put on.

“First look at last’s nights show – big bright and beautiful,” Beanie Wilson said from mainland Australia.

“The clouds did obscure a lot of the display for me, but what I did see was enough to send me home a happy camper.”

Melissa Thompson shared on social media that she and her son called it “the green snake coming towards us.”

“We just had an amazing thought,” she said.

“I wonder if this is how the Rainbow Serpent that stretches right across Australia came to be?

“The colours lasted until almost at the Equator, it could definitely be seen up north, and it certainly danced at the peak as a snake coming across the sky.”

Bernadette Ravenwood from Blackman’s Bay in Tasmania said there was so much variety and movement in the cosmic light show describing it as breathtaking.

Kylie Reid shared she sat beside an apple tree and watched waves of light dance across the sky outside of Davenport.