Dragons may be make-believe, but a dragon-shaped aurora borealis that flickered in the sky over Iceland this month was breathtakingly real — just have a look at this dramatic photograph.
The photo, taken by Jingyi Zhang on Feb. 6, became NASA's astronomy photo of the day on Feb. 18 and has been widely viewed online since. It shows a swirling green aurora over a dark, snowy landscape where a solitary figure — the photographer's mother — stares up at the sky as if awestruck.
Lasers light up the sky in Chile, an astronaut performs repairs during a spacewalk, looking down on lightning from orbit and more of the month’s best space pictures. See more here.
( F. Kamphues/ESO; NASA; Owen Humpreys/ZUMA Press; NASA)
An astronaut returns to Earth, a light beam shines from the sky, the Milky Way appears in paradise and more of the best space pictures from June 2016. (See more here)
(ESA; Shamil Zhumatov / Pool; Tim Peake / ESA / NASA; Ray Farmer / NBC News)
Check out this month’s best space photos, from an aurora glowing over Canada to a surprised jogger in France. See more here...
(Scott Kelly/NASA; leonhard Foeger/Reuters; Boris Horvat / AFP - Getty Images
See Pluto close-up, distant galaxies, astronauts in orbit and other out-of-this-world photos from 2015.
(NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI; ESA/Hubble/NASA; Kjell Lindgren / NASA; Paul Wilson/Mediadrumworld.com/Zuma Press)
Glory in the glow of summer's northern lights, a Stonehenge sunrise, a glittering galaxy and other shining space highlights from June 2015. See more...
(Blaine McCartney/Wyoming Tribune Eagle; Terry Virts/NASA; John Sumbar/ZUMA)
(Photo: Dana Romanoff / Getty Images)
Coloradans paid tribute to the victims of the Aurora movie theater massacre with a city-sponsored "Day of Remembrance" marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting on Saturday.
(Photo: Jonathan Castner / AFP - Getty Images file)
The Aurora, Colo., theater where a gunman opened fire at movie-goers in a midnight premiere of a Batman movie, killing 12 and injuring 58, is open to victims and their families.
The theater was reopened on Tuesday and Wednesday for private visits, and on Thursday a grand opening ceremony and formal reopening is planned, local media reported.
(Photo: Bill Robles / AP)
The families of Aurora massacre victims erupted in anger Friday when a judge postponed the arraignment of suspect James Holmes – with one yelling out, “Rot in hell, Holmes!”
(Photo: NBC News)
Three people were found dead inside a home in Aurora, Colo., after a gunman took them hostage early Saturday morning, police told NBC affiliate KUSA. The gunman was also shot and killed by police after hours of failed negotiation attempts.
Another person who had been inside the house was able to escape and alert authorities, KUSA reported.
(Photo: Jonathan Tucker)
The good news is that the northern lights hit the heights this weekend, with auroral displays visible as far south as Illinois — and the bad news wasn't all that bad. Sure, the glare of the "Harvest Moon" interfered somewhat, but you could argue that the moonlight added some extra shine to the show.
The northern lights are such a subtle phenomenon that they're best seen from the countryside, far from city lights, and that was the case for Jonathan Tucker, who captured the "September Lights" you see above on Sunday night, near Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory.
(Photo: Ed Stockard)
Summer isn't even over in the Northern Hemisphere, but the season of the northern lights is clearly getting an early start.
Saturday's autumnal equinox marks the traditional start of the aurora season in Arctic regions, and with solar activity building up to the top end of its 11-year cycle, we can expect more than the usual allotment of glow-in-the-dark skies. For some reason, this last week of summer has been particularly active on the sun.
(Photo: NBC News)
The families of victims of the Colorado movie theater massacre said Tuesday at an emotionally charged news conference that although a fund intended to help them had raised more than $5 million, they had been shut out of the decision-making process.
(Photo: Rj Sangosti / Reuters, file)
AURORA, Colo. — The text message, sent to another graduate student in early July, was cryptic and worrisome. Had she heard of “dysphoric mania,” James Eagan Holmes wanted to know?
The psychiatric condition, a form of bipolar disorder, combines the frenetic energy of mania with the agitation, dark thoughts and in some cases paranoid delusions of major depression.
(Photo Courtesy of Dignity Memorial)
Nurse Jennifer Gallagher, who helped treat victims of the Aurora theater shooting in Colorado, has drowned while on a family vacation in Iowa.
Gallagher, 46, of Denver, went swimming in West Lake Okoboji the night of Aug. 6 and her body was found the next day, according to the Sheriff's Office in Dickinson County, Iowa.
