Conspiracy theories: the red glow in the sky is a bad omen
Conspiracy theories have proliferated on social media, claiming that the red lights observed on the night of November 5-6 in Ukraine and various other countries in the northern hemisphere are bad omen.
“The red colour indicates that the penetrating radiation is sufficiently intense to ‘burn’ oxygen from the atmosphere, giving the glow its red hue. The red northern lights are considered a sign of the planet’s impending destruction, rather than a reason to take a selfie,” writes user Ksenia Agamalova.
THE RED GLOW is a bad omen!!!
The fact is that the northern glow is an effect that occurs when cosmic radiation penetrates the Earth through the magnetic field, and there’s nothing good about it .That’s fine in the polar latitudes: our planet’s magnetic field re-directs the impact to that area. But if the lights cease on the northern regions and appear closer to the equator, this indicates that the Earth's magnetic field does not sufficiently protect us from cosmic radiation.
Her post garnered approximately 1,300 likes and was shared by over 12,000 users. In the comments section, some people expressed agreement and put forward conspiracy theories.
Elena Kurylenko voiced her concerns, stating, “Why are scientists silent? What are they doing? Is anyone trying to solve this problem? After all, we have no other planet, and our children and grandchildren will live here.”
Iryna Pashkevych went even further, linking the phenomenon to the Middle East conflict: “This is all due to war, and Israel has even used weapons in space. Israel shot down a ballistic missile in space.”
However, none of these claims are true. According to an explanation by Volodymyr Kazhanov, an astronomer and lecturer at the Kharkiv planetarium, a powerful geomagnetic storm occurred due to the recent bombardment of our planet by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun.
Professor Mykhailo Orliuk, head of the Geomagnetism Department at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences, clarified to the BBC that the red polar glow over Ukraine is not exceptionally rare, much like the general red colour of the aurora borealis.
“Such phenomena occur during strong magnetic storms, and we were lucky that the weather was cloudless and we could see everything clearly. There’s nothing to worry about; it’s a very beautiful phenomenon, and there’s no need to be afraid of it,” he reassured.
With the Sun currently in a phase of increased activity, the frequency of magnetic storms is expected to rise, potentially leading to a recurrence of this unusual phenomenon in Ukraine. However, predicting the exact timing of such events remains challenging.
Previously, we discussed how the Ukrainian media manipulatively link solar cycles to historical events 
