'Impossible' orange auroras spotted in UK after solar storm slams into Earth | Hacker News Reader

'Impossible' orange auroras spotted in UK after solar storm slams into Earth

livescience.com

41 pointsBrajeshwar9 comments

Such a transparent example of how "the science" is deliberately misrepresented by media to get clicks. The author knew this full well, and revealed that later in the article. And we just accept being lied to as normal and okay if it's for the sake of novelty. But he didn't have to reveal the boring "plot twist", and indeed many don't, or bury it so deep that most people never read far enough to get it. So we end up with part of the population not believing reality, and part of the population not believing the media.

I find this an overly harsh take. The image is indeed stunning and unlike any other I have ever seen of an aurora. And of course when you can see an orange aurora there must be a mechanism; the clearly state that the orange hues in the new image are caused by red and green light mixing. This only happens when vertical bands of red and green auroras perfectly overlap, making them very rare. Where is this a 'boring "plot twist"'?

Presumably /u/orand is taking issue with the title calling the phenomenon impossible while aware it isn't impossible and then leaving the explanation for why it's possible to later in the article. Personally I don't find it an overly harsh take. The title is straight up lying.

> lying

it's not it says 'impossible' in quotes which tells you it's not really impossible

So there were few orange photons, but rather a mixture of red and green which commonly occur?

Oh boy, wait until you hear how your TV and monitor work!

Just you wait, being able to generate the elusive magenta-wavelength photons will revolutionize the industry, I tell ya.

P.S.: I feel bad for that other group working on a foolish quest for "white photons", but a color-wheel in any art textbook clearly shows that white is a mere mix of colors, unlike the pure and unsullied mono-chromaticity of glorious magenta.

The difference is that the TV can not generate light at orange wavelengths, while auroras can! And then the twist is that what was captured by the camera was of red and green wavelength.

But the article says the mixture is rare

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