The dancing lights of the polar dark night sky is still an amusement to the human race. It all starts with The legend of the Aurora. Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn. For the Greeks, Aurora was the sister of Helios(sun) and Seline(moon) who raced across the early morning sky in her multicoloured chariot to alert her siblings to the dawning of a new day. In ancient China, people believed that these Northern lights were a dragon’s fiery breath. Soldiers in Medieval Europe thought that Red aurora means an outbreak of war. Some say that these lights are the torches held up to guide the souls of those recently departed. Some say it’s the spirit of the children yet to be born playing in the heavens and so on continues the myths.
But what exactly is this ‘Aurora’ and how is this happening?
The secret guy behind this celestial dance is non-other than our dear ‘SUN ‘
Let’s watch this video for a better understanding
Ok, but what is Aurora Borealis and Australis?
Aurora Borealis is the Greek name for Northwind which means ‘ morning light coming from the north’, Often called the Northern lights. The southern hemisphere has its own version and there it is called Aurora Australis which means ‘ morning light coming from the south ‘, often called southern lights.
And now the scientific community is interested in launching a rocket into this glow, but why??
Dr. Kristin A. Lynch, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Dartmouth says that:
1.”The rocket makes local observations of the electric and magnetic field effects and the particles (ions, electrons) involved with the electrodynamics of aurora”.
2. “The visible aurora that we see is the chemical effect in the upper atmosphere but the control of lights is electrodynamics from higher up ”
3. “Active aurora is an indication of active space weather conditions. Other planets (including Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and some exoplanets) have aurora.”
In short we can say that Understandings about the electric and magnetic field can give us more insight about the forces driving aurora. We can determine the implications aurora have on earth and the rest of the universe. As we know that other planets mentioned above are very far from us, if we know how to interpret what we see (earth’s aurora) we can learn about the planetary environment and make more discoveries and find new paths.
Hurray! And One last thing scientists predict that the aurora borealis is at its peak, the next bright cycle will come about in 2025. If possible let’s take a trip to the arctic pole to view the dazzling sky.
– Bincy Babu Raj
Author
