Northern lights reach UK

FRIDAY night the skies will be lit with a wash of colours, as the Northern lights can be seen in some parts of the UK.

Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will become alive with a mixture of memorising patterns created by magnetic charged particles heading for Earth.

Enthusiasts should be able to see the spectacular array of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) at around midnight, which produces hypnotic designs in green, pink, red, blue and yellow light.

The Northern lights or Aurora Borealis, as they are also known, are created by two large explosions on the Sun that send massive amounts of magnetically charged particles towards Earth. The vibrant colours are created by the type of gas particles colliding as they get closer to our planet.

The last time the Northern lights were seen in the UK was in February, when they reached as far as Essex, Gloucestershire and Norfolk.