Aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is a natural light display in Earths sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions. It is a beautiful dancing wave of light that has captivated people for millennia. The southern counterpart, the aurora australis or the southern lights, has features almost identical to the aurora borealis and changes simultaneously with changes in the northern auroral zone.

Auroras are caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with the Earths magnetic field and atmosphere. The sun sends us more than heat and light; it sends lots of other energy and small particles our way. The protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles, and we dont even notice them. But during one kind of solar storm called a coronal mass ejection, the Sun burps out a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds. When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earths atmosphere. There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky.

The colors of the aurora depend on the type of gas particles that are colliding. Oxygen gives off green and red light, while nitrogen glows blue and purple. Intense aurora displays are generated following massive explosions on the Sun known as coronal mass ejections. Auroras are not just something that happen on Earth. If a planet has an atmosphere and magnetic field, they probably get auroras too.