A NUMBER of Scots across the country were left stunned as the Aurora Borealis lit up the night sky.
Known as the Northern Lights, the phenomenon provides a spectacular light display.
Twitter/X account Moray Firth Photo posted some fantastic images from Findhorn Beach in Moray (below).
Another user commented that they “were out dancing last night” and that it is “one of the most beautiful things you can watch in the sky – you can see beams moving about and it is just crazy”.
National columnist and independence campaigner Lesley Riddoch was also among those to get a glimpse of the lights, posting an image from Fife.
One social media user said it was the “best Northern Lights I’ve seen for some time”, with Cullen in Moray in particular being home to some spectacular views.
The Northern Lights are caused by the interaction of particles coming from the sun, the solar wind, with the Earth’s atmosphere.
Physicist with the University of Warwick Professor Don Pollacco explained: “It’s actually a bit like iron filings and the field of a bar magnet.
“The solar wind contains more particles when there are sunspots, as these are regions on the sun’s surface where the magnetic field is interacting with the plasma in the sun, and the particles can be released.
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“Once the particles are channelled into the Earth’s atmosphere, they interact with molecules and have distinctive colours and patterns such as light emissions that look like curtains or spotlights.
“These shapes change quickly over timescales of minutes/seconds.”
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