A dazzling show

Eyes were glued to the night sky last weekend as area residents were treated to a rare sight.

The aurora borealis, commonly referred to as the northern lights, were visible in the upper-Midwest last week thanks to a large geomagnetic storm. Northwest Iowa got in on the show Friday and Saturday.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the northern lights are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph. Our planet's magnetic field protects us from the onslaught and redirects the particles toward the north and south poles, in turn creating the cinematic atmospheric phenomenon.

A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produce major changes in the currents, plasmas and fields in Earth's magnetosphere. Last week's geomagnetic storm was the largest to hit earth in nearly 20 years.