When you purchase through tie-in on our internet site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
On March 23 , airline passengers caught a breathless view of the aurora australis — the spectacular supernal light show also known as the southerly lights — from midair , on a flight booked to fly them into the spirit of the light exhibit .
The charter flight of stairs to the aurora was the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere . It flew 134 passengers on a pear-shaped - head trip journey to the Antarctic Circle from Dunedin Airport ( DUD ) in New Zealand on Air New Zealand flight NZ1980 , a Boeing 767 - 319(ER ) , according toFlightRadar24 , a site that tracks air traffic in literal prison term .
The southern lights, less-photographed than their northern counterparts, are seen from the air in a recent charter flight from New Zealand.
They straggle from DUD on New Zealand ’s South Island on March 23 at 9:23 p.m. local time and returned to DUD on March 24 at 4:54 a.m. , with a flight time of 7 hours and 31 minutes , FlightRadar24 report . [ Intricate Aurora Details see From Space | UHD Video Montage ]
Astronomer Ian Griffin , director of the Otago Museum in Dunedin , direct the trip , announce the landmark air experience in October 2016 . Tickets were sold in pairs — window and adjacent seats only — and were priced at 3,950 New Zealand dollar ( $ 2,776 ) per duad in economy and NZ$8,500 ( $ 5,972 ) per pair in business class , accord to theNew Zealand Herald . They sell out in only five days , the Associated Press ( AP ) reported .
Griffin was inspired to arrange a commercial-grade charter flight to the southern lights after glimpsing them from the air himself while on board theStratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy(SOFIA ) — a Boeing 747 trapping a powerfulNASAtelescope — he toldTVNZin October .
Though the sight was n’t new to Griffin , he described the view to the AP as " utterly brilliant . "
" We were right under it . There were beautiful waft , auroral streamers . This immature - colored stuff that move quickly , it looks like you ’re looking into a dark-green , streaked river , " he said .
Using the hashtag # flighttothelights , passengers shared stunning effigy of the dayspring on societal metier . When artist and photographer Rene Burton uploaded a photograph toInstagramshowing the airplane wing backlit by the glowing green spark , he added another hashtag : # nofilterneeded .
A photograph post by on
picture postedon YouTubeshowed a fast - travel point of lighter appearing outside the airplane about 23 seconds into the footage , leading some commenters to question whether the camera wheeler dealer had glimpse a meteor .
But the rider who fool away the video , Stephen Voss , a aesculapian MD and astrophotographer , replied in a YouTube comment that the aim only seem to be fast - moving because the video was shot as a clip lapse . In real time , the object was displace far too slowly to be a shooting star or comet and was likely a satellite , " possibly theInternational Space Station , " Voss answer .
Voss captured the 24 - second telecasting clip as the aeroplane flew south , on an intercept course with the 66th parallel — a latitude circle line up 66 point south of the Equator — and the international date line , he wrote in the video verbal description .
Auroras — bands ofeerily glow lightthat flap erratically in the night sky — ordinarily occur at mellow northern and southerly line of latitude , and are known as the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and the aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere , according toNASA .
These cryptic show are dynamic , with the light forming figure that are always shifting and changing . first light are produced when the sunlight ’s vigour and particles trip down magnetised field lines at the North and South pole . When these point particles interact with atmospherical gas , the solvent is a attractively colored short show . Auroras are typically dark-green in colour , though they can also be white , violet , blue , pinkish or carmine .
While dawning displays are beautiful to look at from afar , theelectron activitythat generates the spark show can disrupt electricity and communication connection on Earth , consort to NASA .
Original clause onLive Science .
