Aurora over Alaska on Nov. 2, 2015. (Twitter/B_Ubiquitous)

A “mild” solar storm hit Earth during the first week of November, causing an unexpected fall treat across parts of the northern continental U.S. and Alaska.

For several nights in a row, sky watchers glimpsed an aurora borealis, or the northern lights. The geomagnetic light display stretched as far south as Iowa and Nebraska, and lit up the night in other areas, including northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Canada and Alaska witnessed a thrilling showing as well.

Space weather, specifically high-speed streams of magnetic energy from the sun, causes aurora to emanate from both of Earth's poles. A coronal hole, or a literal hole in the sun that releases magnetic energy, spawned this particular round of aurora events. This type of geomagnetic stream typically prompts longer, less-severe solar storms, as opposed to the extremely powerful jets of solar energy that can affect our power grid once they hit Earth, Jeffrey Newmark, a heliophysicist with NASA, .

NOAA issues warnings in part to allow power utilities to prepare for possible space weather-caused voltage corrections. An extreme storm could cause a massive power disruption, which is why the federal government recently released a National Space Weather Strategy, or a plan to improve solar storm forecasting and response.

A mild storm, on the other hand, really exists for our viewing pleasure. That's why Newmark suggests and pausing to take it in.

Hundreds of people across the country did just that, posting their images on social media to share, which we rounded up in the slideshow above. Some of the shots required long exposure times to capture faint wisps of light in the night sky. All the photos offer a glimpse into one of nature's most-spectacular shows.

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Resembling an optical illusion or an abstract painting, stars arc around the south celestial pole in this time-lapsed photo, taken at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Each week, the ESO releases its favorite image of the week — click through to see the highlights. (ESO/A.Santerne)