A breathtaking aurora borealis in the shape of a green, fire-breathing dragon swooped over Iceland in early February in a brilliant display of dazzling light.
Dragons may be the stuff of fairy tales and the imagination, but NASA on Feb. 18 released a very real and stunning photo of the aurora taken by Jingyi Zhang on Feb. 6 as its astronomy photo of the day.
The photographer’s mother, who ran out to see the spectacle, can be seen in the foreground amid a dark landscape with the aurora flashing overhead.
The colorful lights of the aurora are caused when charged particles from the sun collide with the Earth's upper atmosphere around the magnetic north and south poles.
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