What caused the Southern and Northern Lights?
What caused the Southern and Northern Lights?
An aurora (plural aurorae or auroras; from the Latin word aurora forsunrise) is a natural light display in the sky, particularly in the high-latitude (arctic and antarctic) regions; it is caused by the collision of atmospheric atoms with energetic, charged particles coming from space.
What are the Northern Lights a result of?
The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding.
What causes the Northern Lights or the aurora borealis?
The lights we see in the night sky are in actual fact caused by activity on the surface of the Sun. Solar storms on our star’s surface give out huge clouds of electrically charged particles. The aurora’s characteristic wavy patterns and ‘curtains’ of light are caused by the lines of force in the Earth’s magnetic field.
What causes the northern or southern lights that glow in the sky?
Northern lights are also called by their scientific name, aurora borealis, and southern lights are called aurora australis. These particles are boosted in energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere, and when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce dazzling auroral light.
What is the primary cause of the aurora northern and southern lights quizlet?
A glow in the Earth’s ionosphere caused by the interaction between the Earth’s magnetic field and charged particles from the Sun (The Solar Wind). It gives rise to the “Northern Lights”, or Aurora Borealis, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Aurora Australis in the Southern Hemisphere.
How is Northern Lights formed?
As solar wind approaches the Earth, it meets the Earth’s magnetic field. In the ionosphere, the ions of the solar wind collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen from the Earth’s atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions causes a colorful glowing halo around the poles—an aurora.
Are there Southern Lights?
Called the southern lights, or aurora australis, it’s the southern cousin to the aurora borealis and can best be seen from the most southern of landmasses, such as Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica.
What is the shape of Northern Lights?
The brightest and the most distinctive of all forms of auroras are the ones which are curtain-like in the shape of an arc, extending in the east-west direction. This natural light effect is known as ‘aurora borealis’ in northern altitudes, while the effect in the southern latitudes is known as ‘aurora australis’.
How is northern lights formed?
What causes the Aurora Borealis or northern lights quizlet?
What is the difference between Northern Lights and Southern Lights?
Spoiler alert: both northern and southern lights are both types of Auroras. The main difference? One occurs near the south pole, and the others at the north. The scientific name for the northern lights is Aurora Borealis, while the scientific name for the southern lights is Aurora Australis.
What causes the aurora borealis or Northern Lights to occur 1 point?
Bottom line: When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, they cause electrons in the atoms to move to a higher-energy state. When the electrons drop back to a lower energy state, they release a photon: light. This process creates the beautiful aurora, or northern lights.
What causes the northern and southern lights to appear?
The famous Northern and Southern Lights — Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis for those Latin lovers among us — are caused by high-energy particles from the Sun cascading down on Earth.
Where to see the Northern Lights in Australia?
You hear about northern lights more often than southern lights (aurora australis) because there are fewer locations to see auroras from the Southern Hemisphere. Your best chance is on the southern tip of both Tasmania ( Australia) and New Zealand, where a dark sky will help you see any active auroras over the southern horizon.
What’s the scientific name for the Northern Lights?
One occurs near the south pole, and the others at the north. The scientific name for the northern lights is Aurora Borealis, while the scientific name for the southern lights is Aurora Australis.
Where can you see the aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere?
The auroras —the aurora borealis (or northern lights) in the Northern Hemisphere, and the aurora australis (the southern lights) in the Southern Hemisphere—are brilliant natural spectacles that can be seen in the evening sky especially at higher latitudes.
