Nasa say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are
responsible for the lights, known as auroras
Posted on 07/25/2008 9:19:17 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Nasa scientists have discovered what they think causes the Northern Lights, the dramatic, colourful displays seen in the sky seen near the Earth's poles.
After a year of studying the mysterious phenomenon, researchers say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are responsible for the lights, known as auroras.
Nasa say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are
responsible for the lights, known as auroras
Researchers used a network of five Nasa satellites on a mission dubbed Themis to observe a geomagnetic storm in February.
They correlated results with the findings of observatories in Canada and Alaska, which simultaneously tracked the brightening and movements of the northern, aurora borealis, and southern lights, aurora australis. Both moved across the sky at the same time.
"This is a question that people have been after since the beginning of the Space Age," Vassilis Angelopoulos, the University of California-based principal investigator for the Themis mission, told New Scientist.
"The reason it has not been shown up to now is that we didn't have the right satellites at the right positions and the right times."
Mr Angelopoulos said the observed storm about 80,000 miles from Earth was triggered by a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection when the Earth's magnetic field lines are stretched like rubber bands by solar energy, snap and ping back to Earth where they reconnect, releasing the energy.
It is the release of this stored-up energy that powers the auroras, he said.
An alternative theory holds that the geomagnetic events take place much closer to Earth and more Themis tests will be done to resolve the debate on exactly where the they occur, Nasa said.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They are amazing!
I would love to see them. Yes they are amazing.
I remember sitting in my backyard (Maryland) and watching the Northern Lights back in the mid 60’s. This was before they told us we couldn’t see them below Canada. ;-)
haven't seen them here since the late 70's... i miss them
Let me guess...either Global Warming, or worse yet...
The most spectacular display of aurora borealis that I’ve seen I observed at Pullman,Washington, ca 1970. When I visited Alaska (only once) I didn’t see any.
My father worked nights about two miles from home. In the early 70s in the summer he saw them when he started lunch (3AM). Instead of calling and getting everybody upset, he drove home and woke everyone except my little brother up (he was 2 or 3). I was glad he did. It lasted for at least a half an hour. It looked like pastel drapes flowing in the breeze in an open widow. They extended from directly overhead to almost the horizon.The colors randomly changed from green to blue, red, and lilac. An amazing sight.
I saw them again in the late80s - early 90s.
I was also lucky enough to see ball lightning once inside our elementary school!
I suppose this means that the painstaking research studies of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, as recounted in “The Northern Lights,” by Lucy Jago (Alfred Knopf, New York 2001), count for nothing. I wonder whether NASA has acknowledged Birkeland’s contributions to the understanding of this phenomenon and its causes.
Just amazing to watch.
I'm in Wisconsin on the border to Illinois. I figured that it may be a once in a lifetime event this far South.
To somewhat restate my earlier post … I’ve watched the aurora borealis in all its glory while living in Maryland, somewhat lower in longitude than Wisconsin. Of course that was back in the 60’s.
Lights at 80,000 miles should be seen from lower latitudes than "Canada. ;-)".
There is an isolated vista spot in The Valley of Fire in Nevada where they are visable at certain times of the year.
In Alaska, Ft. Greely one hundred miles south of Fairbanks, we saw them in the winter.
My guess is unlimited visability and cold weather are requirements.
yitbos
LOL
Yes, you can watch them at Ft Greely - and freeze to death while watching....
Ever see a tree go up in flames from a tundra fire? In the dark of a Jan night, with a good cloud cover?
THAT will make a believer out of you....
If we could figure out a way to tap that energy...
Makes me wonder what whacked out theories Nikola Tesla was really developing.
It's worth a trip up to Northern Alaska in the dead of winter to see'em. They are as close to God as I've ever come to on Earth.
Runner up is watching squid and fish swim in schools during a red tide where they light up the water so brightly that you can see forty or fifty feet down out in the Pacific Ocean. Hardly anyone has seen this, I think.
I saw a brilliant 2-3 hour show in Lake Geneva in 2005, and it was straight up overhead all the way to the horizon. The blues and greens were fantastic. We finally had to get in the car to drive home (Chicago), but we continued to see them all the way to the border area, and by then it was around 1 am.
Yep, ditto that. I was praising God the entire time I watched His glorious light show.
I have to ask, what's the context of your tagline?
Ever been airlifted into a tundra fire as a firefighter? With orders only to use your squeeze pack if the flames came out of the tundra and started the tree on fire? Walk 1/2 mile to fill up the 5 gallon rubber back pac with water, 1/2 mile back to the flare up. All the time actually walking on fire that has been burning underground for 5 or 10 years?
Yes, my FRiend, I have.
yitbos
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