In today's image, we see an aurora over Iceland. The aurora are caused when charged particles from our Sun strike Earth's magnetic field and are funneled toward the poles. These then interact with oxygen atoms in Earth's atmosphere giving off a green glow. Aurorae will become more prominent and more intense over the next few years as our Sun reaches a peak of its activity cycle.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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