Mysterious White Light Beam Seen In US Amid An Aurora Storm Linked To A Chinese Rocket Launch

While photographing the auroras during a geomagnetic storm, Mike Lewinski caught sight of something extraordinary: a brilliant white beam of light tearing through the night sky. He was shooting from the quiet town of Crestone, Colorado, on May 16, as a moderate geomagnetic storm rippled across the Northern Hemisphere. Celestial events like this occur when the Sun releases a burst of solar wind, disturbing Earth’s magnetosphere. If you’re fortunate, that disturbance can trigger a vivid auroral display in regions much farther south than usual, offering astrophotographers a rare chance to capture the dazzling beauty of the Northern Lights. But even…