NORTHERN LIGHTS
by Emma
Introduction
Have you ever seen dancing pink, red, blue, and green lights on the sky?
You can find them in Canada, Alaska ,North Pole, South Pole. Sometimes you can see it in the southern hemisphere, but it is rare.
What Causes the Northern Lights ?
They are caused by crashes between particles that are released from the sun into the earth's atmosphere that makes the northern lights. The northern lights are about 60 miles above earth. The northern lights are in an oval shape and they have a magnetic field. The sun’s particles can only flow out if there is an opening on the sun’s atmosphere.
How do the Sun’s Particles get to Earth?
The particles from the sun can escape from the sun’s atmosphere at special occasions such as sun spots. The solar wind blows the sun's particles to the earth's atmosphere. The earth has a large magnetic shield which diverts the solar wind. However the magnetic field is weak on the poles [north and south] so the solar wind can enter the earth’s atmosphere. The sun’s particles collide with gases [oxygen, nitrogen] in the earth's atmosphere.
Legend of Aurora Lights
In the northern hemisphere the aurora borealis are called ‘dawn of the north’. In the southern hemisphere aurora australis ‘dawn of the south’. In the ancient roman times aurora was a god of dawn. The New Zealanders shared the same beliefs with the Europeans that they are reflections of fires.The Indians of Menominee believed that the northern lights showed the location of the giants with the spirits of great fishermen.
Fun facts:
There are northern lights on other planets!
You can see the northern lights from space.
Sometimes the norther lights are pink and purple.
All the northern lights are all unique
[like fingerprints.]
Blue Aurora Lights
Pink Aurora Lights
Aurora on Different Planet
Conclusion
I think the northern lights are really fun to do a project on and they are soo beautiful dancing on the sky . I hope you go see the northern lights sometime. [Canada, Alaska, North pole, etc]