Posted on 07/07/2011 9:45:55 PM PDT by Daffynition
Here's a great video primer on how auroras form, from Per Byhring and the physics department at the University of Oslo. With wonderful graphics, the nearly, five-minute-long video details the origin of the solar storms that trigger the Northern and Southern lights.
The video explains how the fusion of hydrogen atoms deep in the sun produce heat and energy, which bubble up to the surface and let loose a cloud of electrically charged particles. After about 18 hours, this plasma reaches the Earth and interacts with the planet's magnetic field, which funnels the particles to the poles, thereby setting off the polar light shows.
Pretty cool! Thanks for posting!
I have to see this one of these days!
Very neato!
We saw them here in Ohio one night 10 years ago or so...
Look outside tonight after midnight...there are predictions the northern US will be able to see them tonight
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