In today's image, we see a recent auroral storm over Lapland. The aurora are caused when charged particles from our Sun, funneled along magnetic field lines, strike oxygen and nitrogen atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, causing it to glow.

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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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