The Intramural Playing Fields were alive with students gazing up into the night sky Tuesday evening. Breaking up the darkness was a faint green, pink, and red glow, made even more stunning when viewed through phone cameras.<\/p>\n
Due to a severe solar storm, the northern lights were visible in over 20 states this evening, with Indiana being one of them.<\/p>\n
Solar storms are a phenomena where the sun ejects massive amounts of charged particles, which collide with gases in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, releasing photons seen as the northern lights, according to a Michigan Tech website.<\/p>\n
For some Purdue students like Anh Nguyen and Hon Ton, this was their first time getting to see the phenomena in person.<\/p>\n
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The northern lights visible from near Martell Forest.<\/p>\n
Olivia Mapes | Editor-In-Chief<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed to come see it. It\u2019s our first time ever,\u201d Ton said. \u201cThis is very rare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the students at the IM Fields hadn\u2019t planned in advance to spend their Tuesday night in the cold. Angela Liu, a senior in materials engineering, and Jasmine Tseng had only come out to see the lights in the spur of the moment, informed by others on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend told us (about the lights), and I was like, \u2018Now? Right now?\u2019 We were studying, but we had to come outside,\u201d Liu said.<\/p>\n
Elena Thomson, a first-year engineering student, said she had found out from her parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey texted me a photo of it, like, \u2018You need to get out there right now.\u2019 I thought about being able to come see it (at the IM fields) like five minutes before I left,\u201d Thomson said.<\/p>\n
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Northern lights visible from the CoRec IM fields.<\/p>\n
Amelia Angelone | Staff Reporter<\/p>\n
Rhea Doshi, another first-year engineering student, said she had been able to see the northern lights earlier during the ongoing solar maximum, but couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to catch them on campus.<\/p>\n
Students like Liu and Thomson chose the IM fields due to their relative distance from a lot of the light pollution of campus, the wide open space which allowed them to feel more immersed in the experience, and the accessibility of the location for students without cars on campus. Positioned near the edge of the West Lafayette campus, the IM fields seemed to be a hidden gem on campus for stargazing.<\/p>\n
However, despite the novelty and beauty of the lights, it was underwhelming to some. Light pollution on campus made it difficult to view the northern lights without digital assistance due to streetlamps and housing lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a good group of pictures with the vibrant pinks, reds, and greens \u2026 lots of greens. The lights are a bit frustrating, though,\u201d first-year engineering student Emma Kostal said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be able to see them, but if this were to happen again, we could, if possible, turn more lights off. That would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kostal acknowledged the safety risks in turning off campus lighting for the northern lights, but other students seemed to share this sentiment as well.<\/p>\n
As seen by the turnout at the IM fields Tuesday night, Purdue students are willing to brave the cold in order to see one of the wonders of the planet.<\/p>\n
Even without dimming the lights on campus, students may still be able to catch the northern lights again this week.<\/p>\n