An aurora caused by an atomic bomb
In 1962 , the US government exploded a nuclear dud over Honolulu . This had a number of unexpected personal effects , including the seven - minute - prospicient display of an artificial morning borealis you see above . After the Van Allen belt was find in the other sixties — the belt of free particles hold in place above the Earth by the Earth ’s magnetic field — scientist mulled over the existence of this new phenomenon and thought , “ Eh ....