So, many of you may know about the Northern Lights also known as polar lights. But what we don't know is the cause of these magical lights. It has not been proven till now but there are many interesting facts about these lights. These lights are only visible from certain places in our planet.
There are some places where we can see these lights at its best.
It has been said that the northern lights are not only visible from our planet. It is also visible from other planets like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. It is displayed in the shape of rings in space. These lights are usually green in color but sometimes they appear in blue, violet, pink and red colors and occasionally orange and white.
In north pole, it is called Aurora Borealis or the northern lights whereas in south pole it is known as Aurora Australis or the southern lights. These lights are present in the arctic and antarctic regions which is called the Auroral zone.
The cree called them the “Dance of Spirits”. In Finland, people used to say that firefox running too fast in snow sends sparks to the sky with its tail and these sparks are the lights. Ancient chinese people believed that they were the flames from the good and evil dragons battling in the heaven. However all these are just myths.
Now let us know what researches say about Aurora Borealis or Australis. Because of the sun's high temperature particles escape from the sunspot areas and it is known as solar winds. They said that it is due to the bombardment of solar particles form the space. These particles originate from the solar wind (i.e it starts from the sun) and it is trapped by the earth's geomagnetic field . Then it flows past the planet. These particles collide into atoms and molecules of Oxygen and Nitrogen and emits flashes of light.
It is best to see these lights in the winter season as there is not much of sunlight. Atomic nitrogen causes blue, molecular nitrogen displays the purple color. These lights have been mentioned in the works of many philosophers, authors and astronomers. The astronomer Galileo Galilei used the term aurora borealis to describe these lights by naming them after the mythical roman goddess of dawn.
