Aurora Borealis

I’ve been feeling pretty out of touch with the scientific world since I left my research position at Pitt. Because of this, I’m going to try to dedicate a little bit of time each week to learning (and posting about) something that’s of interest to me. 

I’ve always been fascinated with the northern lights, especially since our trip to Canada at the beginning of 2003.  The scientific name for this amazing phenomenon is Aurora Borealis, a latin phrase meaning "red dawn of the north." This phrase was first used by an Italian scientist named Galileo Galilei. Galileo gave the northern lights this name because near his home in Italy, the lights appear to be primarily red.
During large explosions and flares of the sun, solar particles are emitted into space. As the particles descend towards the Earth, they collide with atmospheric gases; the energy of this collision results in the emission of a photon (a light particle). As many of these collisions occur, the lights appear to move across the sky.