A mysterious Aurora "Dragon" shining over Iceland

A brilliant green dragon emerging from a spectacular Aurora Borealis show (or aurora borealis) was captured on a photograph taken in Iceland. NASA shared the image on Monday as the astronomical photo of the day.

The intensely glowing green light resembles the entire body of a dragon, which seems to greatly expand its wings to fill the night sky. Purple hues seem to crown the dragon's head and form a tongue that comes out of his mouth.

The giant dragon in the sky has been growing on Iceland earlier this month, according to NASA.

The glowing dragon in the sky has developed over Iceland earlier this month. (Photo credit: Jingyi Zhang and Wang Zheng)

"The aurora was caused by a hole in the solar corona that expelled charged particles in a solar wind that followed the change in the interplanetary magnetic field in the Earth's magnetosphere," NASA said in an article. "When some of these particles then hit the Earth's atmosphere, they excited atoms that then emitted light: a dawn."

This amazing sight was so captivating that the photographer's mother rushed to see it – she was captured in the foreground of the photo.

According to NASA, no sunspot has appeared on the Sun so far in February, making the multiple days of auroral activity somewhat surprising.

Want to see the spectacular northern lights in the comfort of your own warm sofa? You can watch Finland's live web cams or live auras from the Canadian Space Agency in Yellowknife, Canada's Yukon.

More on Geek.com: