Goat Aurora Over Greenland

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day sometimes it’s hard to believe what you see in the sky. During the Shelios 2012 expedition to Greenland (an educational program for students), even veteran sky enthusiasts saw auroras so colorful, so fast changing, and so unusual in form that they could remember nothing like it. As the ever changing auroras evolved, huge shapes spread across the sky morphed from one familiar form into another, including what looked to be the head of a goat (shown above), the head of an elephant, a strange green-tailed comet, and fingers on a celestial hand. Even without the aurora, the sky would be notable for the arching band of our Milky Way Galaxy and the interesting field of stars, nebulae, and galaxies. In contrast, in the foreground is a farm house in Tasiusaq, Kujalleq. Move the slider on the image to see the guide lines and labels.