WONDER 6: THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

My wonder today is one of the most magical natural phenomena; the Northern Lights.

I haven't travelled North yet to see this spectacular event. This is definitely in my to-do list...one day!
Here you have a video to get a glimpse of the wonder that may accompany an encounter with the Northern Lights

I’d heard the phenomenon described as moving and mystical. Every northern culture has legends about the aurora. One Inuit myth holds that the northern lights are torches held in the hands of Spirits seeking the souls of those who have just died, to lead them over the abyss terminating the edge of the world. Another holds that the lights are the visible spirits of unborn children playing ball in the heavens.

What Causes the Aurora?

(Source: Wikipedia)

The scientific explanation for the lights may be less poetic, though still fascinating. Auroras are born of the sun, when large explosions and flares throw great quantities of particles into space, carried outward by the solar wind. The aurora is an electro-static phenomenon that occurs during when these charged protons and electrons in the magnetosphere collide with atoms and gases in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. When the particles meet the Earth’s magnetic shield, they are pulled into two great ovals around the Earth’s magnetic poles. As they interact with the upper layers of the atmosphere, approximately 60-150 miles above our heads, the energy that is then released appears as a luminous, moving glow, typically visible in the night sky in the polar zones at particular times of the year.

Each gas gives out a characteristic color when bombarded. Excited oxygen atoms emit yellow-green light, the most commonly observed color. Ionized molecular nitrogen emits blue and violet light, colors to which the human eye is less sensitive. At lower altitudes, excited molecules of nitrogen and oxygen glow with a vivid red. These three primary colors together produce the hues of a typical aurora.

In the north, it is known as the aurora borealis, named for the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas. The name ‘aurora borealis’ was first recorded in 1621 by French scientist Pierre Gassendi, who thought the lights looked like a bright sunrise. Especially in Europe, the aurora often appears as a reddish or pink glow on the northern horizon, as if the sun were rising from an unexpected direction. Its counterpart is observable, though less frequently, in the Southern hemisphere, where it is called the aurora australis, a Latin word meaning “of the South.”

What about you? Is there any natural phenomenon that inspires wonder to you?