Nature never fails to amaze us with its beauty. One such spectacular display of lights in the polar sky of Northern hemisphere is the Aurora Borealis, also known as Northern lights.
The science behind this magic is equally interesting as the visual display itself. As charged particles from the sun enter Earth’s upper atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen molecules, we witness the dancing lights in the night sky.
The variety of colours produced depends on the type of gas, solar activity and the altitude where aurora occurs. The most frequently viewed green colour and the rare red tinges are produced by oxygen. The blue and purple colours produced by nitrogen are rarer in nature.
It is also believed that these lights are sometimes accompanied with sounds when the auroral activity is very strong.
However, no matter how well they can be explained, the northern lights always seem to carry an element of mystery which makes them so special and enigmatic.
DoubleSpeak 