Spectacular northern lights give Wichita area a Friday night show to remember

Wichita Eagle
·2 min read

Wichita Eagle photographer Travis Heying captured these images of the northern lights, also called aurora borealis, on Friday night near the Marion and Chase County line.

The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern sky near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house in the pasture was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
Photographers frame up an old abandoned house with the aurora borealis near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
Photographers frame up an old abandoned house with the aurora borealis near the Marion and Chase County line on Friday night. The abandoned stone limestone house was built in 1878. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle

For comparison, here’s a photo Travis took of the same farmhouse in 2021.

An abandoned limestone farmhouse built in the 1870’s still stands in a field southeast of Florence. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle
An abandoned limestone farmhouse built in the 1870’s still stands in a field southeast of Florence. Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle

The northern lights

The northern lights occur when the sun’s energized particles come in contact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere at a very fast speed. Earth’s magnetic field protects the planet from the onslaught, according to Space.com.

The colors and brightness of the lights depend on the atmosphere’s chemical composition.

Auroras have a variety of colors — pink, green, blue, purple and yellow, to name a few.

The lights are usually the most visible in the “auroral zone,” which is in about a 1,550 mile radius of the North Pole, but solar storms can make the lights move farther south.

Contributing: Lindsay Smith of The Eagle