WHAT IS STEVE?

For a long time, photographers have been snapping away at the glowing green dancing lights that are often seen in high-latitude regions of our planet’s night sky. Known as aurorae, these light displays attract many thousands of enthusiasts.

But when a growing number of people also began to see a thin purple ribbon of light, interest in this natural celestial phenomenon began to pique even further. Appearing for as little as 20 minutes to as much as an hour, the mysterious purple arcs were reported 30 times across 2015 and 2016, mainly by aurora chasers from Alberta, Canada. And those who had watched the northern lights for many years in this location knew something strange was occurring.

What they were witnessing, they surmised, was a different kind of light show to the ones that they were used to. Unlike a typical aurora which presents itself as an oval of green, blue and red light lasting hours, this phenomenon appeared as a line which extended for hundreds if not thousands of miles. The ribbon of light clearly had a start and end point,