This is what it looks like when the Sun lights up the night sky. Earlier this month, the Sun created the largest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades, with possibly the most brilliant and widespread display of auroras in the past 500 years. The storm’s coronal mass ejections soared through space at speeds up to 3 million mph (4.8 million kph), bunching up in waves that reached Earth on May 10 and creating a G5 geomagnetic storm — a level last seen on Earth in 2003. As the storm reached Earth, it created a beautiful aurora that illuminated the sky and was seen around the globe, even visible in areas including the southern U.S. and northern India. Monitoring data on space weather help us understand the impacts on satellites, crewed missions, Earth, and space-based infrastructure. Submitting your aurora photos and reports to the NASA-funded Aurorasaurus.org site can help scientists study the event as we work to understand and prepare for these events. Image description: An im...