Auroras
photo taken from nasa.gov
Auroras are natural light displays in the sky, usually appearing at night, particularly in the polar regions. These auroras have nothing to do with the supernatural. This is the result when there are large solar explosions with quantities of particles being thrown into deep space. They travel as plasma clouds ranging at speeds up to 600 miles per second. To reach Earth, it takes them two or three days and are caught up in Earth’s magnetic field and are guided towards the geomagnetic north or south poles. In order to get closer to Earth, they must pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, causing them to collide with the gases our atmosphere is composed of. During these collisions, photons (light particles) are generated. It takes many collisions for us to even be able to see these beautiful colors, about 100 million.
The colors greatly depends on the height at which the lights originated and the different gases that are involved. Auroras appear to be 60-70 miles up in the sky.
(Source: Henshaw, Peter. Strange Phenomena. 2008.)
