Nuclear Auroras
Pretty, huh? That’s an aurora. But it’s not like any other aurora you’ve seen.
That one was caused by a nuclear weapon detonated in space. In 1962, the U.S. military detonated several nukes about 250 miles above the Pacific in order to, well … see what would happen. The project, called Starfish Prime (which sounds like a comic book villain), disrupted the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds Earth and sent a wave of charged particles toward Earth.
Charged particles interacting with the atmosphere are exactly what cause auroras. Only they’re not usually visible as far south as Hawaii … unless you use a nuke to make them.
If you’d like a more peaceful look at auroras, check out this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart on YouTube: The Auroras.