During the night of January 20th, 2026, as well as in the following night, there were multiple observable auroras all over Germany. The sky was filled with vivid red and green hues.
2-Meter-Alfred-Jensch telescope with aurora borealis in the night sky. Photo: Jochen Eislöffel, Thüringer LandessternwarteThis colourful event is linked to strong solar activity that happened on January 18th: an eruption in the active region AR14341. The event was classified as X1.9 on the flare classification scale, which means that it can have a major global impact.
These solar eruptions are caused by twists in the concentrated magnetic field on the Sun that manifest as sunspots. The continuous convective motions on the Sun cause the twisting in the magnetic fields storing enormous amounts of energy. When the magnetic field suddenly gets rearranged due to solar dynamics, this energy is released, oftentimes leading to an ejection of mass. The energy heats up the surroundings, causes intense electromagnetic radiation, and accelerates the charged particles such as protons and electrons.
The charged particles take several hours to arrive here on earth. As the electromagnetic radiation reaches the Earth in about 8 minutes after the eruption, the eruptions can be “seen” immediately. They are deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field, and redirected to the polar regions. When the eruption is strong enough, the particles can reach places farther away from the polar regions as was the case on January 20th. That’s why we saw polar lights in Germany – a rare phenomenon.
The particles interact with Earth’s upper atmosphere producing different colours of light, commonly green and red (Oxygen), and rarely violet (Nitrogen).
Author: Pauline Kassebeer, student at Sebastian-Münster-Gymnasium in Ingelheim, and intern at the Thuringian State Observatory
Fortunately, the night sky is still pretty dark at the Thuringian State Observatory. That's why we had a great view of the aurora borealis. Here are some impressions of the polar lights above Tautenburg (Copyright for all photos: Thüringer Landessternwarte):
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