When you mix together electricity, magnetism and gases you get an aurora. Sun storms produce huge flares of electrically charged particles and generate powerful solar winds that blast the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth's magnetic field repels most of this electrical attack, but captures a fraction of it, which leaks down to the atmosphere at the magnetic poles. When the Sun is particularly active, this electrical energy passes through the thin gases in our atmosphere so they glow with coloured light like a fluorescent tube or a plasma ball.
The Moon shines beneath the glowing curtain during an Aurora display over Iceland. Photograph by Jamie Cooper.
Image number:
10465084
Credit:
Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
Image rights:
Science Museum
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