what are the northern lights made of

The northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the result of huge masses of solar particles that are shot into space from massive erruptions on the surface of the Sun. When the particles come in contact with the earth, the Earth's magnetic field causes them to congregate around the North and South poles. As masses of the particles hit the atmosphere, the atmosphere acts like a wall stopping them (the patricles would be harmful to life on Earth if they were not stopped by the atmosphere) and, as they pile up and collide with the gasses in the upper atmosphere the energy resulting from the collisions causes photons (which are particles of light) to be emitted and it is the sudden creation of these billions of photons being created at once that makes it appear that there are waves of light rolling across the night sky. The Northern Lights can only be viewed in the Northern Hemisphere. However, for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, the same phenomon occurs and is called, appropriately, Southern Lights or Aurora Australis.