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May 10, 2024 · Throughout history, humans have gazed in awe at the astronomical wonder that is the aurora borealis. We’ve wondered what it is and told stories about the lights that shimmered above. The...
An aurora (pl. aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).
May 2, 2022 · Learn how ancient civilizations observed and recorded the aurora borealis, the natural phenomenon caused by solar wind colliding with Earth's atmosphere. Discover the earliest known written record of the northern lights in Chinese history, dating back to the fourth century B.C.
- Jonathan Shipley
Feb 9, 2024 · The northern lights are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72...
- Stefanie Waldek
Apr 29, 2021 · A new historical study just published in the Journal of Space Climate and Space Weather shows that great aurora storms occur every 40 to 60 years. “They’re happening more often than we thought,” says Delores Knipp of the University of Colorado, the paper’s lead author.
Jun 22, 2024 · Aurora is a luminous phenomenon of Earth's upper atmosphere caused by the interaction of solar wind particles with atoms. Learn about the history, types, and colours of auroras, and how they are observed on other planets and moons.
Mar 9, 2019 · In 1619, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei coined the term “Aurora Borealis” for an astronomical phenomenon observed mostly at very high latitudes: shimmering bands of color arcing across the night sky.
