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How are Aurora Borealis made?
How are auroras made?
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Jun 10, 2021 · How are aurora borealis caused. The northern lights are caused by the interaction of the solar wind - a stream of charged particles escaping the Sun - and our planet's magnetic...
- Amazing Natural Light Display
Watch an amazing natural display in the night sky in...
- Amazing Natural Light Display
Oct 11, 2024 · Even though auroras are best seen at night, they are actually caused by the Sun. The Sun sends us more than heat and light; it sends lots of other energy and small particles our way. The protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles, and we don't even notice them.
Jul 23, 2024 · The northern lights are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our...
- Stefanie Waldek
- What Causes The Aurora Borealis Or 'Northern Lights'?
- What Causes The Different Colours in The Aurora?
- Is The Aurora Borealis Visible in The UK?
- Do Other Planets Have Aurorae?
- What Are Solar Flares and How Do They Affect The Aurora?
- What Are Geomagnetic Storms?
The lights we see in the night sky are in actual fact caused by activity on the surface of the Sun. Solar storms on our star's surface give out huge clouds of electrically charged particles. These particles can travel millions of miles, and some may eventually collide with the Earth. Most of these particles are deflected away, but some become captu...
Different gases give off different colours when they are heated. The same process is also taking place in the aurora. The two primary gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen, and these elements give off different colours during an aurora display. The green we see in the aurora is characteristic of oxygen, while hints of purple, blue...
The aurora borealis can be seen in the northern hemisphere, while the aurora australis is found in the southern hemisphere. While the best places to see the aurora are concentrated around the polar regions, the aurora borealis can sometimes be seen in the UK. The further north you are the more likely you are to see the display, but in the past the ...
Any planet with an atmosphere and magnetic field is likely to have aurorae. Scientists have captured incredible imagesof aurorae on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aurorae on Mars have also been seen, but as the 'red planet' does not have a global magnetic field, aurorae behave differently and appear to be far more widespread.
The aurora is a very dramatic example of the ways in which solar activity affects the Earth. Solar flares are like enormous explosions on the surface of the Sun in which streams of charged particles are emitted into space. It typically takes two days after the flare is seen on the Sun for the particles to reach Earth. Upon their arrival, these part...
Intense aurora displays are generated following massive explosions on the Sun known as 'coronal mass ejections'. These explosions release clouds of hot plasma containing billions of tons of material travelling at around two million miles per hour. When the clouds reach the Earth, they interact with the Earth's magnetic field to cause events called ...
Sep 6, 2018 · The northern lights (aurora borealis) and southern lights (aurora australis) are fascinating scientifically. In fact, aurora is not unique to the Earth. We have observed aurora in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn with various spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
An aurora [a] (pl. aurorae or auroras), [b] also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), [c] is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains ...
Oct 8, 2021 · aurora: A light display in the sky caused when incoming energetic particles from the sun collide with gas molecules in a planet’s upper atmosphere. The best known of these is Earth’s aurora borealis, or northern lights.
