The aurora borealis (northern lights) are a colorful light show that occurs in the northern hemisphere. The light show produces many different colors although green and pink are the most common. Other colors that are visible include red, yellow, blue, and violet. The aurora borealis appears in many different forms such as patches, clouds of light, arcs, and shooting rays that light up the sky (“Northern Lights,” n.d.). It is the result of collisions between gas particles in the Earth's atmosphere and charged particles that get released from the sun's atmosphere. People have been observing the aurora borealis for thousands of years, but until recently, it was not well understood. Throughout history philosophers, authors and astronomers such …show more content…
However, during the most active solar flares, the lights can be seen as far south as Scotland, northern England, and New England. The northern lights occur every season, however, they are the most active in the winter months due to the lower levels of light pollution and the clearer air. Additionally, the lights are the brightest and most active after sunspot activity was at its highest (“Aurora,” n.d.). Researchers have also discovered that the auroral activity peaks roughly every 11 years. This means that the next big aurora will occur in 2024 (“Northern Lights,” …show more content…
When there are interactions with nitrogen the red, violet, and blue colors are formed. The type of collision that occurs also helps determine what color will appear in the sky. For example, atomic nitrogen causes blue displays, while molecular nitrogen creates a purple display. Another factor that determines the color is the altitude. The green lights typically occur up to 150 miles high, the red color is formed above 150 miles, blue usually appears closer to the surface of the earth at 60 miles, and purple and violet can occur anywhere above 60 miles (“Northern Lights,” n.d.). Red is made at the highest altitudes. Due to the low concentration of atoms and lower sensitivity of the human eye, this color is only visible when the solar activity is very intense. Green occurs at lower altitudes with frequent collisions between particles. The high concentration of atomic oxygen and the higher eye sensitivity in green make this the most common color to see in the Northern Lights. The excited nitrogen transfers its energy by colliding to an oxygen atom. This radiates it away to the green wavelength. The blue color occurs at even lower altitudes than the green color. This is because atomic oxygen is uncommon at these heights and molecular nitrogen produces visible light emission. Blue and purple emissions produce the highest levels of solar activity. Additionally, the molecular nitrogen transitions
While some say the event can only be observed during clear weather, the night I saw the lights it was fairly cool, misting rain and very foggy. It was quite amazing to see. We had been sitting at Wisemans View for almost 4 hours and had almost given up when a faint glow appeared on the side of the mountain. We watched it move slowly down the mountain then a second light appeared. They both descended down until reaching the river at the bottom. The lights disappeared completely and after a few seconds reappeared on the other side of the river. The hairs on my arms and on the back of my neck stood up. We continued to watch the pair of lights move along the ridge until they just
“Those colors are from sulfur and iron oxide mainly,” Norval said, revealing more of his encyclopedic knowledge of Gnaritus’ geology. “There are many colorful rainbows on Gnaritus not only in the sky but also on the land!”
“About 300 years ago, Sir Isaac Newton saw beam of sunlight through a glass prism. He discovered that light is made up of a spectrum of seven distinct visible colors” (University of Manitoba). Thus known as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, or roygbiv. These colors come about when electrons jump down from a higher energy level. To do this, a specific amount of energy is absorbed by an specific atom, causing its electrons to jump from ground state to higher energy levels.
How are the colors of the Northern Lights created? "The atmosphere contains mostly nitrogen and oxygen, which the characteristics colors of their respective line spectra." [webexhibits.org] The Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis, has many elements in the surface of the earth. There's atomic oxygen, nitrogen, mixed with hydrogen. "Only one of these elements are responsible for the two main colors which are green and red." [webexhibits.org] You would think that the Aurora was just lights appearing in the sky but they're actually distractions between electrically charged particles from the sun that comes into the earth's atmosphere. [northernlightscentre.ca] The most common colors are green, yellow, and red. Nitrogen causes most of the blue, purple, and red parts, the bright cool colors. Atomic oxygen causes most of the orange and yellow parts, the warm colors. Northern Lights are like curtains in the sky
During this unit in my astronomy class, one thing that I found fascinating was sunspots. A sunspot is basically a patch that occasionally occurs on the surface of the sun, and appears darker by contrasting with it’s surroundings. Human’s have known about sunspots for a quite a while now, even all the way back to the fifth century B.C., when the Chinese were able to observe dark areas on the sun. However, it wasn’t until the year 1610 when there was a real break through. Four men, all of which no one is particularly certain who observed sunspots first, were able to see these blemishes on the sun through telescopes. These men were Galileo Galilei, Johannes Fabricius, Christopher Scheiner, and Thomas Harriott. All through their own independent studies, they recorded the changing shapes and locations of sunspots. Further advancement for study on sunspots began in 1749, when scientists began daily observations in several observatories. Continuous observation began in the year 1849.
For this essay, I chose the constellation Corona Borealis. It was one of 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy, an astronomer of the second century. Its Latin name is translated as “Northern Crown”, due to its crown-like shape. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Coronae Borealis, and is a magnitude 2.2 star. Other notable stars in the constellation include R Coronae Borealis, a yellow supergiant, and T Coronae Borealis, also known as the Blaze Star, which is a recurrent supernova. Corona Borealis covers 179 square degrees (0.433% of the sky), placing it 73rd in size of the 88 recognized constellations. It is positioned in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, and is surrounded by Hercules (to the east), Boötes (to the north),
The Northern Lights is a glowing demonstration of Earth’s magnetic field communicating with charged particles from the sun. The zone runs around the Northern Coast of Siberia, Scandinavia, Iceland, the Southern tip of Greenland, Northern Canada and Alaska. The scientific name for them is Aurora Borealis. But, how do the Northern Lights appear?
People accustomed to reading text hundreds or even thousands of years old can now read new material that is reality based. This auroral message gives new insight into the origin of life and the purpose of their existence.
If you’re looking to see the majestic northern lights, you’ll need to wait until those long, sunny summer nights have come to an end, and Alaska’s cool, star-filled nights have set in, making September a good time to cruise to
Named for the Roman goddess of dawn, the aurora is a mysterious and unpredictable display of light in the night sky. The aurora borealis and aurora australis – often called the northern lights and southern lights – are common occurrences at high northern and southern latitudes, less frequent at mid-latitudes, and seldom seen near the equator. While usually a milky greenish color, auroras can also show red, blue, violet, pink, and white. These colors appear in a variety of continuously changing shapes. Sometimes the aurora is so dim and scattered as to be mistaken for clouds or the Milky Way; sometimes it is bright enough to read by. What does an aurora look like? Auroras can appear as long, narrow arcs of light, often extending east to west
In 2009, Harper Lee’s bestselling novel To Kill a Mockingbird was banned in St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario after a parent complained about the use of inappropriate language in the novel (Javed 2009). To Kill A Mockingbird, considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, is also one of the most controversial. According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, it is one of the most challenged and banned classic novels (Downs 2016). Although this novel has been banned in many schools and school boards across Canada and the United States because of “inappropriate racial and sexual content”, To Kill a Mockingbird thoroughly bespeaks the absurdity of the inequality and discrimination
When Columbus got here in 1492 when they were on the ship they had seen a light. They described it as a a small wax candle
Macbeth begs the witches, “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.” This dialogue shows that Macbeth no longer cares about betraying his friends. He is too focused and worried about becoming the King and Thanes. Which will lead to him betraying Duncan by killing him to become the King. The author uses ambition leads to betrayal Lady Macbeth asks ‘’ Why did you bring these daggers from the palace ‘’(2.3,4-7).
When a beam of sunlight passes through a specially shaped glass object called a prism, the rays of different wavelengths are bent at different angles. The bending breaks up the sunlight into a beautiful band of colors. This band contains all the colors of the rainbow and is called the visible spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, the light appears as violet. It consists of the shortest wavelengths of light that we can see. Farther along the spectrum, the light has increasingly longer wavelengths. It appears as blue, green, yellow, orange, and red, each shading into its neighboring colors in the spectrum. The longest wavelengths of light that we can see appear deep red in color. Some descriptions of the spectrum also mention the color indigo, which is closely related to blue, between violet and blue.
One of the things that makes the Northern Lights special is their diversity. Their vast displays differ greatly based on a couple of factors.