At the same time, the annual meteor shower Perseid is ongoing. Between August 11 and 13, significantly more shooting stars than usual can be seen across the country. The reason is that the Earth's atmosphere collides with a dust cloud from a comet.
Maja Wallering, 21, and Hugo Ziegler, 18, were looking for shooting stars on Monday evening, but they saw another celestial phenomenon.
The two got goosebumps when they saw the strong light in Söderköping, writes Expressen.
We had climbed up a hill because we had heard that there would be shooting stars tonight. There, we saw light pillars but thought it was just the light from the streetlights. Then we saw that it was green and pink, and realized it was the northern lights.
It was really cool, says Hugo Ziegler.
A cloudless night in large parts of the country meant very good conditions for seeing the meteor shower, reported several media outlets on Monday evening.
New chance tonight
If you missed the celestial phenomena, there are new opportunities in the coming nights.
It will decrease a bit, but there are relatively good chances to see the Perseid meteor shower in the coming nights, says astrophysicist Maria Sundin.
There may also be an opportunity to see the northern lights.
My tip is to keep an eye on apps or websites that update the chances of seeing the northern lights, it can change quickly, she says.
The weather in the coming nights will be crucial. According to SMHI, there will be good visibility in some parts of the country.
Middle and northern Norrland and southern Götaland have the best prospects for stargazing, says the on-duty meteorologist at SMHI.
Thicker clouds may roll in over northern Götaland, Svealand, and parts of southern Norrland.
You can get lucky and see something even between the clouds, says Maria Sundin.
"Perseid is like a clock"
The Perseid meteor shower and the northern lights have no connection, and it's quite rare for them to occur at the same time, according to Maria Sundin.
The Perseid meteor shower is like a clock and occurs on the same date every year, but it was lucky that there was also northern lights. Northern lights are rarer in the summer when it's light, she says.
In northern Sweden, northern lights are common, but the opportunity to see them with the naked eye in southern Sweden only comes now and then.
Solar storms are powerful energy outbursts on the sun. During the outbursts, charged particles are thrown out from the sun at high speed.
The outbursts are common, but rarely reach the Earth.
If the solar storm hits the Earth, there is a chance of northern lights – but also for example power outages and disruptions in air traffic and telecommunications.
Northern lights and southern lights – also called Aurora borealis and Aurora australis – are light phenomena that are most common in the Earth's polar regions.
The sun's activity varies in a cycle of about eleven years, where we are now in the most active period.
Source: MSB, Space Agency, and others.
