Facts About the Northern Lights

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Haven't we all been dazzled once or twice by this twinkling ribbon of color in the sky? It's quite an experience. Here in Idaho, I really never thought I would see them but one night my daughter and I both saw them up in the sky. What a show! I found some facts out about them and wanted to share them. Here is what I found: * Scientists believe that some of the prehistoric cave drawings dating back as far as 30,000 years may have been depicting these colorful waves. * Their official name is Aurora Borealis which is a combination of Aurora after the Roman goddess of dawn and "borealis" after Boreas, the Greek god of the North winter and wind. * Galileo came up with their name in 1619. He believed that sunlight reflected in the Earth's atmosphere created the northern lights. This was partially right, the sun does play a role. * Kristian Birkeland, a Norwegian scientist, was first to have the idea that the aurora borealis was caused by electrically charged particles leaving the suns outer layer. He died in 1917 before his theory was proved to be correct. * The northern lights are not only found near the North Pole. The aurora australis (or southern lights) also occurs and for the same reasons. * The color green, which is the most common color we see, usually occurs when charged particles collide with oxygen molecules at altitudes of 60 to 190 miles. Red aurora appears at about 190 and 250 miles, and the least common colors of blue, purple, pink and yellow appear during periods of increased solar activity. * The northern lights are usually a silent phenomenon, but they are accompanied by cracks, whistles and hisses about 5% of the time. This could have to do with static electricity that is released because of the aurora's disturbance in the planet's magnetic field. * The lights are most often seen during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, but geomagnetic storms can make them visible in other spots including as far south as Virginia. * Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have their own versions of the northern lights.