Rare green flash from Venus captured in stunning image. Here’s how YOU can see the phenomenon

A photographer captured Venus briefly emitting an ethereal green light in the sky over Sweden, in what is believed to be a rare atmospheric optical phenomenon.

While trying to capture images of the hellish planet and the rising moon Over Stockholm, Peter Rosen observed the glittering flash that has only been seen a handful of times.

Green flashes are caused by light reflecting off the Earth’s atmosphere like a prism and only occur during cold, clear nights as the fresher, cleaner air allows the light to escape.

For those wanting to view Venus’s green aura, this could be possible by using a high magnification setup, such as a high-speed camera with a very large sensor.

By taking photos in quick succession as Venus sets, it may be possible to capture the truly spectacular view.

Peter Rosen took a photo of Venus next to the moon before capturing the rare phenomenon

However, the green lights are only visible on clear nights and when there are sharp temperature gradients in the air, such as extreme cold or heat, which magnify one color over the other.

Rosen told Spaceweather.com that he was able to capture the green flash “due to the extreme cold that still persists over southern Sweden.”

The green flash appeared as Venus turned an angle closer to Earth’s horizon.

When this happens, Earth’s atmosphere can behave like a prism, splitting white light into the colors red, green, yellow, orange and blue.

If the atmosphere were completely clean and free of pollution, blue would be the flash of color emitted by Venus.

However, because the air contains pollutants, the second color reflected is green.

Photographer Paolo Palma takes this photo of Venus radiating green light in the sky above Rome in 2018

Venus’s green light has only been captured a few times, with photographer Colin Legg capturing one of the most recent images in 2017, before Rosen’s 2024 photo.

Another green flash on Venus was captured in Rome in 2018 by Paolo Palma, who used his smartphone at the eyepiece of a 12-inch telescope that he magnified 76 times.

“The planet was low on the horizon and the light looked like a long, fiery bubble, with flames of red, orange, yellow and green,” Palma said at the time.

“As Venus disappeared below the horizon, the last ray was clearly green in color,” he added.

Although other green flashes have been seen, Rosen’s photo of Venus “may be the best ever,” according to Spaceweather.com.