Amateur Photographers Have Discovered a New Form of the Northern Lights

[Judi Lynn]

2. Amateur stargazers capture new form of northern lights

Nicola Davis 5 hrs ago

A new form of the northern lights has been captured by amateur enthusiasts, researchers have revealed.



© Lucas Jackson/REUTERS The Northern Lights are seen above the ash plume of a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, April 22, 2010. Picture taken April 22, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo


The phenomenon of glowing green lights rippling across the night sky, also known as the aurora borealis, have long captivated the public and experts alike.

Some have suggested the lights are depicted in prehistoric cave paintings, while the Latin term is said to have been coined by the astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Auroras are produced when charged particles, such as electrons, are ejected by the sun and funnelled towards the Earth’s poles by our planet’s magnetic field. There they interact with gases in the atmosphere, including oxygen and nitrogen, increasing the energy of these gases – energy which is subsequently released as light.

“This is the same as neon lamps,” said Minna Palmroth, a professor of computational space physics at the University of Helsinki. “Basically we can say the auroras are celestial neon lamps.”

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