WHAT ARE AURORAS AND HOW ARE THEY FORMED?
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30 May 2024
If you're ever near the North or South Pole, you may be in for a very special treat. Frequently there are beautiful light shows in the sky. These lights are called auroras
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If you're near the North Pole, it is called an aurora borealis or northern lights. If you're near the South Pole, it is called an aurora australis, or the southern lights
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Auroras are caused by the Sun. The Sun sends us more than heat and light; it sends lots of other energy and small particles our way
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The protective magnetic field around Earth shields us from most of the energy and particles, and we don't even notice them
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But the sun doesn't send the same amount of energy all the time. There is a constant stream of solar wind, and there are also solar storms
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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
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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 and into Earth's atmosphere
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There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere, resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky
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Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple
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