News Earth

Ghostly white northern lights present new auroral mystery

The whitish-gray glows might be cousins of the mauve light streak called STEVE

Six all-sky images of northern auroras white white lights running through them

Scientists are struggling to explain grayish-white glows sometimes woven through the Earth’s northern lights (seen in these all-sky images).

University of Calgary

By Maria Temming

Mysterious ribbons of grayish white have been spotted woven through the northern lights.

New images reveal that these ghostly glows can appear tucked within or curled up beside red and green auroras. But the pale lights are not auroras themselves, researchers reported December 30 in Nature Communications.