What is the cause of the northern lights?

Question

Alaska sky

Answer 1

Northern lights originate from our sun. During large explosions and flares, huge quantities of solar particles are thrown out of the sun and into deep space. These plasma clouds travel through space with speeds varying from 300 to 1000 kilometers per second.

But even with such speeds (over a million kilometer per hour), it takes these plasma clouds two to three days to reach our planet. When they are closing in on Earth, they are captured by Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and guided towards Earth's two magnetic poles; the geomagnetic south pole and the geomagnetic north pole.

On their way down towards the geomagnetic poles, the solar particles are stopped by Earth's atmosphere, which acts as an effective shield against these deadly particles.

When the solar particles are stopped by the atmosphere, they collide with the atmospheric gases present, and the collision energy between the solar particle and the gas molecule is emitted as a photon - a light particle. And when you have many such collisions, you have an aurora - lights that may seem to move across the sky.

Northern lights is a result of our atmosphere shielding against solar particles which would otherwise make our planet uninhabitable.

Answer 2

the sun releases gas and particles from its surface, in what is known has solar flares, those flares travel and then hit the earth atmosphere, when the flares enter the atmosphere and the magnetic field of the earth, the different gases mix with the different solar flares, which then in turn produce what we see as the northern lights...the reason you can see them even more better in the north and south is because of the stronger magnetic pull, but they happen all around the earth...all hours of the day..

Answer 3

It comes from the solar winds and the collision of the magnetic field. The beta particles are attracted to the north pole and the alpha particles are attracted to the south pole.

Answer 4

From the sun's solar flare, bursts of energy are reflected. They hit the earth and are reflected to the north and south poles from the magnetic field. the solar particales hit the gases in the air, causing them to glow. the northern lights are born

Answer 5

Solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic fields.

Answer 6

The earths magnetic field

Answer 7

Aurora Borealis

Answer 8

Simply, streams of ions come from the sun and strike the ionosphere, causing the glow.

Answer 9

solar particles are allowed into our atmosphere there because it is so far north and some of them get through the thinner atmosphere there and they burn up as they get closer to the earth.

Answer 10

electro magnetic fields....or maybe God just wanted a really cool light show.