A swirling mass of plasma rained a torrent of electrons onto the Earth over the North Pole in what scientists say is the first time they’ve seen such a “space hurricane,” NBC News reports.
The event, which occurred in August 2014 but was only confirmed after viewing satellite data, was confirmed by analysis in China, the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom. The “space weather” event was 620 miles wide, about 125 miles up in space.
“You could see flows of plasma going around, which were like the winds of the space hurricane,” Larry Lyons, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA, said. “These flows were strongest at the edge and decreased as you moved toward the eye in the center, before picking up again on the other side, just like the flow of air in a regular hurricane.”