The northern lights visible across the United States after a solar flare were the most widespread and intense aurora show since a historic display in May.

A strong (G3 class) geomagnetic storm on the sun is sending pulses of energy toward Earth. As the particles interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, they may trigger a display of northern lights Thursday night and possibly again Friday night. You can see the southward extent of the auroral oval across Minnesota in the image at the top of this post.

Solar storms could bring faint but visible auroras to parts of the Northern Hemisphere starting late Thursday and continuing into early Friday morning, according to space weather experts.