Sky “fireworks”
People who live far enough north or far enough south are often treated
to a giant “fireworks” display on clear nights. Great sheets of light
seem to hang in the sky, rippling and wavering like curtains in a
breeze. The light flickers with colors— frosty-white, pale green, and
pink.
These lights are inside the earth’s atmosphere, but what causes them
comes through space from the sun. Whenever the sun has many sunspots, it
shoots out great numbers of tiny particles of energy into space. Many of
these particles come to earth.
Near the earth’s North and South poles there are magnetic poles. These
north and south magnetic poles are like the ends of a big magnet. They
attract the particles of energy from the sun. The particles collide with
other particles in the earth’s atmosphere. This makes them glow, filling
the sky with shimmering, shivering light.
In the Northern Hemisphere, these sky \”fireworks” are called the aurora
borealis, which means “northern lights.” In the Southern Hemisphere,
they are called the aurora australis, meaning “southern lights.”
