• Question: what are the Northen lights

    Asked by ledw to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      The Northern lights, or Aurora Borealis to give them their proper name (which I only point out to show off! :P), are caused by charged particles from the sun that crash into atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. These collisions sometimes give the electrons in the atoms extra energy, or can even knock them off completely. When the atoms lose the extra energy to return to their original state they emit light to compensate. We call this light an aurora.

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Steve is right and the only thing I’d add is that it’s only at the poles of the earth that you get the aurora becasue this is where the earth’s magnetic field lines can interact with the sun’s magenetic field lines and let the interplanetary electrons and protons reach our atmosphere… The sun is a big bar magnet and the earth is a little bar magnet inside the sun’s bigger one!

Comments