Minjun held his dad’s hand tightly, wrapped in a thick blanket, standing in a dark, open field. The sky was unusually clear, and there seemed to be far more stars than usual.
“Dad, can we really see the aurora tonight?”
“If we’re lucky. There’s been news of a big eruption on the Sun a few days ago, so tonight should be perfect timing.”
“What does a sun eruption have to do with the aurora?”
“The aurora is basically a gift the Sun sends us. The Sun is always blasting tiny particles out into space, and some of them eventually reach Earth.”
“Those particles make the aurora?”
“Exactly. Earth has something like a giant magnet inside it, so those particles can’t just pass straight through, they get pulled along the magnetic field toward the North or South Pole.”
“So that’s why it only shows up there?”
“Right, that’s exactly where the particles end up. When they arrive, they collide with oxygen and nitrogen particles in the air, and that collision gives those particles energy, making them glow.”
“Colliding makes them glow?”
“Yep, kind of like how a fluorescent light works. Hitting oxygen makes green or red light, hitting nitrogen makes blue or purple light.”
“So that’s why the aurora has so many colors!”
“Exactly. Those colors rippling across the sky like a curtain, that’s the aurora.”
“But I heard the aurora is really hard to see from where we live. Why can we see it tonight?”
“You’re right, usually the aurora only shows up in places at very high latitude, much closer to the North Pole. But when the Sun erupts this powerfully, way more particles come pouring in all at once, and the whole area where the aurora appears stretches wider than usual. That’s why, very rarely, even a place at a lower latitude like ours gets a glimpse of it.”
“So a night like tonight is really special.”
“It is, this kind of chance might only come once every few years.”
Just then, a faint green glow began spreading at one edge of the sky.
“Dad! Look, there!”
“Shh, let’s just watch quietly.”
The green light kept widening, swaying across the sky like a curtain caught in an invisible wind, dancing. Minjun barely breathed as he stared at the light.
“Is this really something the Sun sent us?”
“Yes, the light we’re seeing right now was made by particles that left the Sun only a few days ago. That’s actually much more recent than the sunlight you feel during the day.”
“That’s amazing. Can astronauts on the space station see this too?”
“They see it in an even more special way. We look up at the aurora sideways, like a curtain, but people on the space station look down at it from above, so it looks like a glowing green ring wrapped all the way around the whole Earth.”
“Whoa, the exact same aurora looks completely different depending on where you’re standing. How many times have you seen this, Dad?”
“This is my third time. But every single time, it feels just as amazing as the first.”
Minjun stayed close beside his dad, looking up for a long, long time at the sky dancing above them.
“The Sun sends out tiny particles that get pulled toward Earth’s poles by its magnetic field, painting curtains of green and purple light across the sky.”
Your Turn Now
Tonight, share with someone what you remember.
- Where do the particles that create the aurora come from?
- Why can you usually only see the aurora near the North and South Poles?
- Why is the aurora sometimes green and sometimes purple?
(Check when ready: 1. From the Sun. 2. Earth’s magnetic field pulls the particles toward the poles. 3. The particles glow different colors depending on whether they collide with oxygen or nitrogen.)
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