Do you even know the Northern Lights?

 Learn about Aurora Borealis

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) is a phenomenon that happens near the North and the South pole. It’s a very interesting thing that we get to witness on the earth.

Let's see where it all starts…

As you know, the sun is a massive star. It has trillions of tons of energy, enough to make a spaceship melt even if it’s thousands of kilometers away from it. The surface temperature of the Sun 6000०C, while at its core, the temperature is approximately 15 million०C. Also, the pressure in the core of the Sun is so high that hydrogen atoms are fused into helium. The fusion phenomenon takes place only on the star of our solar system as it hosts a perfect environment of pressure and temperature for nuclear fusion. This nuclear combination releases a large amount of energy in the form of convection cells. These cells create a magnetic field on the sun and it tends to get stronger at some places, forming elastic magnetic bands.

Eventually, such magnetic bands push their way out to the surface and form a loop. Because the temperature of the sun is so high, plasma keeps flowing on the surface. This plasma drags the magnetic field further outwards. Finally, the magnetic field twists like a rubber band and breaks. Millions of joules of energy is released and this is called a Solar storm.

One great thing about the Earth is that it has a very strong magnetic field of its own. This magnetic field has been protecting us for millions of years from solar storms. However, this protector of ours has some weak spots too. The magnetic field is weaker at the poles so the energy of these solar storms gets concentrated at the north and south poles of the earth. Solar storm’s energy is absorbed by atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. Atoms of Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, etc. absorb this tremendous amount of energy and the electrons jump from a lower energy orbit to a higher one. The electrons remain there for some time and then release this energy in the form of colorful lights to become stable. And that's how we can see Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). It is basically the release of energy from atoms and molecules that they receive from the solar storms.