aurora valentineAlthough they’ve been together for about 4.5 billion years, the sun and Earth still seem to have a downright electric relationship, based on a colorful show of northern lights seen on Valentine’s Day.

Above, a short but stunning aurora lights up the sky over Bø in Vesterålen, Norway.

Such displays occur when the sun sends a burst of charged particles coursing toward Earth. A recent uptick in these so-called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, that started recently has increased aurora activity.

Photograph Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen