What is the Northern Lights and how does it form

What’s that green thing in the sky that everyone wants to see at least once in their life?
The Northern Lights. And what are the Northern Lights? A natural light phenomenon that blah blah blah... we’ll get to that in a second.
 

What are the Northern Lights?

Put simply, the Northern Lights are a play of light, a kind of optical effect, or, if we want to be more technical, an incredible atmospheric phenomenon.

Although visible to the naked eye from our planet, their origins actually lie very far away from us, about 150 million kilometers away. The Northern Lights are triggered by the interaction between particles (electrons and protons) generated by the sun—the solar wind—and our ionosphere.

Let us explain a little better.
 

How the Northern Lights form

Since back in third grade, when the science teacher was explaining the solar system, you were probably picking your nose instead of listening... let’s do a quick refresher!
If we had to explain how the Northern Lights form, we’d start here, with the biggest star in our solar system: the Sun (yes guys, the Sun is a star).

This is where all the wild stuff happens. Huge explosions, basically. Particles of energy charged with protons and electrons (those little blue and red balls in diagrams shooting off in every direction), pushed by the force of the solar wind, head toward Earth.

Once they reach our planet, most of them are wiped out by Earth’s magnetic field. Only the toughest ones make it through... kind of like we did when we were sperm cells.

The ones that survive are directed toward Earth’s two magnetic poles, the North Pole and the South Pole, moving within the magnetosphere and producing incredibly powerful electric currents! The accelerated protons and electrons are like super-charged bullets looking for a target. They strike the atoms or gas molecules that make up the atmosphere, transferring an enormous amount of energy to them.

The gases present here, to release the tension and stress generated by this encounter, have to get rid of the energy they have absorbed and return to their normal state.
And what do they do? They create one of the most thrilling light shows the human eye can ever witness: the Northern Lights.

Okay, that was the scientific part. Since nobody is ever going to remember everything we just wrote, you can sum it up like this: “the Northern Lights are a green thing that appears in the sky after a bunch of stuff collides in the universe.”
 

Northern Light, the lights of the north

Even today, in many places around the world, the aurora borealis is referred to by the English expression “Northern Light,” meaning “the lights of the north”. Have you ever wondered why?

Until not too long ago, people thought the Northern Lights were nothing more than a reflection caused by the presence of icebergs, or perhaps unusual flashes.
It was only in 1859, after exceptional solar activity, that the phenomenon was truly understood.

Because the Northern Lights have always appeared only in the northernmost areas of the planet, the neighboring countries farther south have always called them “Northern Light.”

If you want to see the Northern Lights, if you want to feel the thrill beneath one of the most beautiful spectacles the sky can offer, take a look at our TRIP TO ICELAND and our TOUR OF NORWAY.  Both are awesome.