Northern lights put on colourful show with more to come

The northern lights put on a dazzling display of bright colours and shimmering spectacles across the night sky on Tuesday.

And meteorologists are anticipating Wednesday evening’s light show to be even more striking for all Canadians and most Americans, weather permitting.

People took to social media from all over the continent to share images and videos of the auroras, which featured red, pink, green, blue, and purple hues.

While the technical term for the atmospheric phenomenon is aurora borealis, the celestial event only occurs when electrically charged particles from the sun crash into the Earth’s upper atmosphere .

However, our planet’s magnetic field protects us from any damage the solar wind would inflict. Without it, Earth would feature a barren landscape like Mars.

The nor