Researchers have uncovered centuries-old accounts of the 1582 solar storm. They’ve got their hands on a Portuguese scribe dating early March 1582, which describes the magnificent light show never before experienced by people of the nation.

Today we know about auroras that are seen in higher latitudes -- the green strands of light that put on a beautiful show. However, at the time, people who lived closer to the equator (people like us) weren’t aware of this phenomenon, so when they saw it for the first time, they were truly taken aback.

The 16th-century Portuguese chronicle describes what eyewitness Pero Ruiz Soares saw in Lisbon, “A great fire appeared in the sky to the North, and lasted three nights. All that part of the sky appeared burning in fiery flames; it seemed that the sky was burning. Nobody remembered having seen something like that… At midnight, great fire rays arose above the castle which were dreadful and fearful. The following day, it happened the same at the same hour but it was not so great and terrifying. Everybody went to the countryside to see this great sign.”
Researchers (in their study) reveal that something similar was experienced across feudal Japan where people in Kyoto got to see a similar display of fiery red skies. There have also been records of the mention of this event in Leipzig, Germany, South Korea and several other nations in Europe and East Asia.