amnhnyc:

Have you ever looked up at the night sky to find a view like this? Aurora, also known as the Northern or Southern Lights, are most often seen in high-latitude regions around the Arctic and Antarctic. These spectacular displays are caused by collisions between charged particles from solar wind and oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere. As the oxygen and nitrogen molecules revert to their normal state, they release photons, or small bursts of energy in the form of light—which is what we see on the ground below. The color of these hypnotizing displays is determined by what’s colliding: oxygen produces yellows and greens, while nitrogen is responsible for reds, violets, and blues.

Photo 1: Beverly & Pack, CC BY 2.0, flickr (Northern Lights)
Photo 2: Ben, CC BY-ND 2.0, flickr (Southern Lights)
Photo 3: Jukka Hernetkoski, CC BY-NC 2.0, flickr (Northern Lights)
Photo 4: Trey Ratcliff, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, flickr (Southern Lights)

#world #amazingplanet #space #northernlights #southernlights
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