The photo taken at Corfe Castle (England) captures a moment when three unique astronomical phenomena occurred simultaneously.
When British photographer Josh Dury began photographing the Perseid meteor shower on the nights of August 12 and 13, he had no idea he would witness a truly spectacular “cosmic display” filled with vibrant colors.
3 unique astronomical phenomena appearing together in one photo (Photo: Josh Dury).
According to Space, the photo captured by Dury not only includes images of the Perseid meteor shower but also features at least two other distinct astronomical phenomena.
These are the Northern Lights and the rare atmospheric phenomenon known as the SAR arc, which stretches across the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Nebula.
“This is definitely a one-of-a-kind photo,” Josh Dury shared in a post on social media platform X. “You can clearly see all three astronomical phenomena occurring at the same time in the sky.”
It is known that Dury chose Corfe Castle, which dates back to the 11th century, as the backdrop for his photo because it is a familiar location that he had discovered and photographed during the G5 geomagnetic storm on May 10.
Dury aimed to capture the moment of the Perseid meteor shower while the SAR arc was visible around it. This means that the appearance of the Northern Lights as the third element in the photo was purely a stroke of luck and could not have been anticipated.
“I waited for over three and a half hours, making 50 attempts at long exposures. The Northern Lights appearing was completely unexpected,” Dury shared.
In the photo, the Northern Lights appear in the left corner, highlighted by a vibrant pink glow. Meanwhile, in the opposite corner, the Perseid meteor shower streaks across the sky.
These are remnants from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which passed by Earth in 1992. However, to this day, the remaining debris continues to blaze into brilliant trails of light as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. This phenomenon is referred to as a meteor shower.
According to NASA, the Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 11-12 each year, as that is when Earth moves through the densest part of the debris.
At the center of the photo is the SAR arc, appearing as a band of deep red light, often mistaken for the Northern Lights.
This phenomenon occurs when thermal energy leaks into the upper atmosphere near the aurora from Earth’s ring current system. The SAR glows deep red due to interactions between atomic oxygen in the upper atmosphere and energy ions.
However, the SAR arc is often difficult to see because the human eye is not sensitive to light within this wavelength.
To make the light sources appear as vibrant as shown in the image, Dury used various image processing techniques combined with long exposure on his camera.
Interestingly, Dury did not even notice the presence of the SAR arc until he completed the image processing steps.
