Northern lights is the name of a light phenomenon
often seen in the northern regions. The lights have
been around since earth formed an atomosphere -
the dinosaurs saw it, early humans saw it and our
predecessors will see it. The scientific name for
it is "Aurora Borealis", aurora for short.

If you are outdoors one evening during winter, take
a minute and glance up at the skies. If you're
lucky you might catch a glimpse of some flickering
curtains of lights, apparently dancing across the
dark sky. You are watching the northern lights, a
celestial phenomenon that has amazed people for
ceturies.

The northern lights have had a number of names
throughout history. the scientific name for the
phenomena is Aurora Borialis, which is Latin for
red dawn of the north.It was scientist Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) who first used the expression
On the latitude where Galileo was living, northern
lights consist of mainly red color.

Northern lights occur as a result of solar
particles colliding with the gases in the earth's
atmostphere.
Northern lights originate from our sun. During
large explosions and flares, huge quantities of
solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into
deep space. These plasma clouds travel through
space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilo
per second.

But even with such speeds (over a million kilometer
per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to
three days to reach our planet. When they are
closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's
magnetic field (the magnetosphere)and guided
towards earth's two magnetic poles; the geomagnetic
south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.

A well known author, after watching a beautiful
aurora in its fullest splendor, concluded,
"No pencil can draw it, no colors can paint it and
no words can describe it in all its magnificence.