You may not even realize it, but our planet is currently enduring a massive bombardment of solar space loogies.

On Sunday, the Sun coughed up a planet-sized burst of charged particles, which splattered all over the Earth throughout Monday and Tuesday. The U.S. government's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) was quick to label the storm with a G4 label (severe). Thankfully, that wave passed through with few problems to report. However, the SWPC spotted a second "coronal mass ejection" on Monday whose ejecta is expected to hit Earth later tonight.

Industry and government has made huge investments in monitoring "solar weather" because these storms have the potential to wreak havoc on GPS systems, satellite communications, and the terrestrial power grid—basically all the things that sustain modern civilization. While reverting to a post-apocalyptic Mad Max scenario would indeed be an unfortunate thing, these solar discharges aren't all bad—in fact, they're pretty awesome.

When these discharges bump into the Earth's magnetosphere, they result in breathtaking celestial light shows that we call auroras. And the recent solar activity has made the shows particularly bountiful, expanding them far beyond the magnetic poles where they are usually isolated. The "Northern Lights" have not only crept down into the U.S. mainland, but have been spotted as far south as Texas. If the solar weather predictions hold true, we could be in for another amazing show later tonight.

Click through our slideshow to checkout some of the coolest shots of the Northern Lights as seen from vantage points far from the magnetic poles.