What used to be a one-off event – ​​or a bucket list trip to the Arctic Circle – has become an increasingly common sighting in recent years.

On Thursday evening, the stunning colors of the Northern Lights were once again visible to the naked eye across much of the US.

Experts say the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are more visible right now because the sun is at what astronomers call the “maximum” of its 11-year solar cycle.

What this means is that about every 11 years, at the height of this cycle, the sun’s magnetic poles flip, and the sun goes from sluggish to active and stormy. On Earth, this would be the same if the North and South Poles switched places every decade.

“At its calmest, the sun is at solar minimum; During solar maximum, the sun burns with bright bursts and solar eruptions,” according to NASA, the US space agency.

The current 11-year cycle, the 25th since records began in 1755, began in 2019 and is expected to peak next year.

As a result, the conditions that led to the recent activity will remain in place for many months to come.

The solar bursts that produced the latest round of twinkling lights in the night sky began on October 8, when a massive sunspot erupted on the surface of the sun, 93 million miles away.

The eruption sent a stream of electrically charged particles called ions toward Earth. This current is known as solar wind.

Aurora displays occur when the charged particles collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.

As they collide, light is emitted at different wavelengths, creating colorful flashing and swirling displays in the sky.

During this maximum moment in the solar cycle, the number of sunspots increases, leading to more coronal mass ejections that send charged particles toward Earth, creating the aurora.

In the Northern Hemisphere, most of this activity takes place near the Arctic Circle.

When solar activity is strong, it can spread to a larger area.

Experts say that given the overall high activity on the Sun and lots of sunspots, there’s a good chance we’ll get more of these coronal mass ejections to Earth in the coming months.

But to get a good view, make sure you are in a dark place (away from artificial light sources) and that you are in an area where the sky is free of clouds.