What is it?
Aurora Borealis is known as
Northern Lights
The result of between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the Sun’s atmosphere
collisions
Named after Aurora, Roman Goddess of
Dawn
Aurora Australis is known as
Southern Lights
The bright dancing lights are collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter
The Earth's Atmosphere
and from the sun are blown toward Earth on the “solar wind”
Electrons and Protons
Named after Boreas, Greek god of
the north wind
Aurora Borealis does not take place only on Earth, but throughout the whole solar system including
Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn
Seen above the magnetic poles of the
Northern and Southern hemisphere
The temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees celcius which makes the collisions of gas
Frequent and explosive
People from these 3 areas believed the lights were reflections of torches or campfires
Maori people of New Zealand, Northern Europe, and North America
The particles that originate from the sun, travel at speeds between
180 and 310 miles per second.
The most prominent colors of the lights are
Pale green and pink
Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun’s atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the
magnetic field
The Inuit of Alaska believed the lights were spirits of
animals they hunted
They were even spotted in Virginia during the Civil War during the
Battle of Fredericksburg
Name 3 shapes the Northern Lights can appear in
arcs, streaks, clouds, patches, rippling curtains, shooting rays
These charged particles are largely deflected by Earth’s magnetic field, however the earth’s magnetic field is weaker at either pole which allows the particles that enter the atmosphere to collide with
gas particles
Other aboriginal peoples believed the lights were spirits of
their people
Red and green lights are the result of atoms and purple lights are the result of atoms
Oxygen and Nitrogen