This is not aliens. It's an aurora named Steve

Every once in a while we see an aurora photograph that looks more like aliens than northern lights.

This is one of them. It probably wasn't photo-shopped (because why?) but there's no obvious explanation. Turns out there's a lot about space we don't understand yet, The Washington Post reported.

When a group of "aurora chasers" in Canada would see this bright arc, they didn't know what to call it either. So they named it Steve.

Now scientists are actually looking into what causes the phenomenon, which means it will probably get an overly-technical science name but hopefully people will keep calling it Steve anyways.

Aurora are caused by geomagnetic storms which occur when the sun blasts high-energy particles toward Earth.

They interact with the particles in the upper atmosphere and the result is colourful, shimmering lights.

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Last fall i captured an image of an auroral phenomenon that was largely unexplained. Until now...... I was told many versions of what it was but until today i had yet to learn the truth. I was contacted by a U of Calgary scientist who has been researching aurora and with the help of night sky photogs have definitively explained what this is. Here is a link to the keynote. His starts at 1:08:00. Link in my bio 🌌 📷 🌌 📷 🌌 📷 🌌 📷 🌌 📷 🌌 @splitsecondsnapshot @dolicacorp #dolicaspring17 #explorekamloops #explorebc #explorecanada #earthfocus #tourcanada #imagesofcanada #kamloopsbcnow #canadiancreatives #photosofnature #sunsetphotos #auroraborealis #creativeexploration #ig_landscapes #landscapephotography #aurora #getoutdoors #takeahike #pacificnorthwest #picoftheday #planetearth #ilivehere #igerscanada #ig_canada #naturelovers #canadagram #canada150 #northernlights

A post shared by Dave Markel 🍁 Photographer (@alpinelifer) on Apr 19, 2017 at 7:04pm PDT

Eric Donovan, a professor at the University of Calgary, said he wouldn't have ever known this feature existed had it not been for the photo-sharing group on Facebook, according to the European Space Agency:

While the Aurora Chasers combed through their photos and kept an eye out for the next appearances of Steve, Professor Donovan and colleagues turned to data from the Swarm mission and his network of all-sky cameras.

Soon he was able to match a ground sighting of Steve to an overpass of one of the three Swarm satellites.

"The temperature 300km above Earth's surface jumped by 3000C and the data revealed a 25km-wide ribbon of gas flowing westwards at about 6km/s compared to a speed of about 10m/s either side of the ribbon.

"It turns out that Steve is actually remarkably common, but we hadn't noticed it before. It's thanks to ground-based observations, satellites, today's explosion of access to data and an army of citizen scientists joining forces to document it.

Last week New Zealanders were treated to two nights of the stunning Southern Lights.

Sightings were reported in Wellington, Christchurch, rural Canterbury and Central Otago on Sunday evening.

It was a weekend of wonders, with the lights spotted as far north as Auckland on the Saturday.

- Additional reporting by NZ Herald