LAS CRUCES — The eerie yet beautiful auroras that delivered pink and green nighttime skies across New Mexico and much of the U.S. this month are the result of geomagnetic storms caused by solar activity.

The light shows result from coronal mass ejections, eruptions of plasma and magnetic energy that send charged particles toward Earth, where they mingle with atmospheric gases and produce lights of varying colors depending on one’s position on the planet surface.

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