Southeastern Australia rejoiced with a mesmerising natural light show to start the year 2025. A vibrant aurora australis was seen by the naked eye on New Year’s Day in Tasmania and parts of Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and New South Wales. Streaks of green and purple southern lights were visible from 11.30 pm on Wednesday (Jan 1) until early Thursday morning. 

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Clear skies followed by a severe geomagnetic storm created a stunning light show with the people sharing pictures of their experience on social media. The aurora was so bright and strong that it was visible over Hobart, even when city lights prevented such phenomena from being clearly visible. 

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Rare Aurora

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A professor at Monash University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, Michael Brown, said the aurora came at the peak of a 12-year cycle.

He said the past 12 months had produced “some of the best displays of aurora... visible from Australia in living memory." “Last night’s display was probably one of the top five from the past year.”

Disclaimer: WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of photos and videos shared on social media.

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“It’s not that common an occurrence, but it’s been happening a lot over the past year,” he said.

“The sun has a natural cycle of 11 years, roughly, and we’re at the peak of that cycle right now, the solar maximum. And this means a lot of solar storms, a lot of solar flares, and these produce more aurora than normal," Brown added.

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What caused the Aurora Australis 

The displays were caused by a geomagnetic storm with the sun sending a series of particles towards Earth. These charged particles interacted with Earth’s magnetic field, producing the bright colours seen across southern Australia overnight. 

Although such displays are unpredictable, Prof. Brown said that more auroras can be seen even in the future, but it will be hard to believe when they will happen. They might occur in about four weeks when the sun rotates and the storm faces Earth again. 

 

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Future possibility 

Following this, Brown said, “These storms on the surface of the sun come from particular regions, and the region that produced the current burst of activity may still be active in four weeks, which means it could produce aurora in four weeks.“But it’s also possible that in four weeks this region will have fizzled out.”

(With inputs from agencies)