Our Sun has an eleven-year solar cycle, and over that time, it goes from being a bland ball of plasma to being a speckled mess of sunspots and coronal mass ejections.

This summer, our Sun started showing signs that the 2025 solar max could be a fun one. On August 27 and August 29, the Sun emitted a pair of flares that hit our atmosphere causing the sky to light up. These flares were followed by a coronal mass ejection on September 2 that created aurora as far south as New Hampshire.

While aurorae look good from Earth, they look amazing from space. In this image, we show the aurora as seen by astronauts from above. If you have the money to book a flight to space, go during solar max. For everyone else, you can also get amazing views from airplanes flying over the poles, so if you’re flying from L.A. to London, make sure to sit on the north-facing side of the plane.

If you want to know when aurora may appear, check out spaceweather.com and consider subscribing to their alerts.

Earth isn’t the only place with solar storms: ESA’s Solar Orbiter took a blast on August 30 as it flew toward Venus. Luckily, it’s designed to handle the blast. This is a reminder though — we don’t yet know how to protect humans on a journey to Mars from these kinds of events. This is one giant hurdle we’re going to need to solve before we populate the red planet with something other than robots.

More Information

Trio of solar flares produce radio blackouts and dazzling auroras (Space.com)

Astronaut spots bright aurora storm from the International Space Station (photos) (Space.com)

Stream of solar wind brings stunning aurora to north American skies (Space.com)

ESA press release