If you’ve not seen the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), this video will give you some idea of why people marvel at them. They are caused by solar flares which send clouds of solar particles into deep space, traveling through space at 300 to 1000 kilometers per second – much slower than the speed of light. They can take two or three days to get to the Earth.
The Earth’s magnetism pulls the particles to the poles, where they collide with atmospheric gases; emitting photons (light). If the solar cloud is large enough the light puts on a spectacular show in the Northern sky for those who live at high latitudes. If the Earth had no magnetic field these solar flares would kill us. The lights rarely put on a show like the one in the video.
The term “Aurora Borealis” was created by the French Scientist, Pierre Gassendi. He named the lights after Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Boreas, the god of the North wind.
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