I’d love to see an aurora! Have you? They are created when high speed particles from the sun hit the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the earth’s atmosphere. The oxygen and nitrogen molecules get very excited as they absorb these high sped particles, but as the particles leave the oxygen and nitrogen molecules again, a bit of energy as light is released. That’s what causes the colours.
Kate’s got is all summed up. Don’t you love it that ‘excited’ is a real scientific word?
As an aside, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials), the first book of which titled Northern Lights (another name for the aurora), is a really good read. It’s also full of fun historical and scientific references — but don’t try to LEARN science from it or you’ll get all muddled up between what is fact and what is fiction.
Hi nickskii,
I’d love to see an aurora! Have you? They are created when high speed particles from the sun hit the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the earth’s atmosphere. The oxygen and nitrogen molecules get very excited as they absorb these high sped particles, but as the particles leave the oxygen and nitrogen molecules again, a bit of energy as light is released. That’s what causes the colours.
Check out these amazing images
http://bit.ly/kVC0PR
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Hi nickskii,
Kate’s got is all summed up. Don’t you love it that ‘excited’ is a real scientific word?
As an aside, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials), the first book of which titled Northern Lights (another name for the aurora), is a really good read. It’s also full of fun historical and scientific references — but don’t try to LEARN science from it or you’ll get all muddled up between what is fact and what is fiction.
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