Humans have been trying to make sense of the mysterious Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, for millennia – and, despite their scientific explanation, most northern myths accord some kind of deeper meaning to their appearance in the night sky. We're an eclectic mix of English, Australian, Indian, Canadian, Polish, South African and New Zealanders in the team and we love to travel the world, be it for work, pleasure or often both. 2020 Go Travelling Ltd. All rights reserved. Particularly spectacular displays include auroral storms noted during August and September 1859; February 11, 1958, when lights 1250 miles wide circled the Arctic from Oregon to New Hampshire; and March 13, 1989, when the sky turned a vivid red seen in Europe and in North America as far south as Cuba. It’s just the sky conditions that change making them visible. Still, many people claim to hear whooshing and crackling noises when there is an aurora in the sky. This comes from ancient folklore: the Finns believed that the aurora was caused by a fox sweeping its tail, sending snow up into the sky. The solar flare that created the solar storm of 1859 was of such magnitude that the Northern Lights were visible as far south as Mexico, Cuba and Hawaii. There are regular contributions from all of as at On The Go Tours as well as from travellers from the far corners of our planet. For some people, they're 'proof' that the earth is flat. Look in the direction of the closest pole. Inuit believed the lights were spirits of their ancestors playing a game with a walrus skull used as the ball. They called it sillblixt – or ‘herring flash’ – and saw it as a sign of a good haul to follow. Humans have seen and made stories about the lights since prehistoric times and, more recently, conducted scientific studies on them. 4. Witnessing pure blue light is very rare as well as pure red which is produced by high-altitude oxygen found at heights of up to 200 miles above the earth. Here are some facts about the Northern Lights. They refer to armies in the night sky in the year 859, when ‘a brightness like that of daytime shone unbroken from the east to the north’. A 13th-century text in old Norse – the Konungs skuggsjá – includes an explanation of why the Earth must be a sphere, and relates to the belief of some Greenlanders that the Earth is a flat disc surrounded by oceans. This natural phenomenon is as fascinating as it is beautiful. 2. We’ve collected ten of the most interesting facts about the Northern Lights. The International Space Station sits at the same altitude as the Northern Lights meaning astronauts can see the lights from the side. The earliest datable account is on a Babylonian clay tablet that recorded observations made by the official astronomers of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the night of 12/13 March 567 BCE of an unusual “red glow.” But the earliest of all might be 30,000-year-old cave paintings that some believe to represent the aurora. But auroras have been seen as far south as Mexico. Galileo Galilei and Pierre Gassendi witnessed a lights display in 1621, and a reference to the northern lights was made by Gregory of Tours way back in the 500s. On a related note, astronauts aboard the International Space Station often see, and photograph, the aurora. In fact, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, there's always an aurora somewhere on Earth. This aurora has to be fairly active before it can be seen from places other than Antarctica, with Hobart, Tasmania and the southern tip of New Zealand offering the best viewings. 5. Fishing communities in Scandinavia once believed that the Northern Lights were caused by light reflecting off a large herring shoal in the ocean. A similar storm hitting Earth today could potentially cause mass disruption to global communication systems. The electrically charged plasma is mainly made up of electrons and protons that have been pushed outwards from the centre of the sun. (The solar wind is a vast stream of electrically charged plasma that has been ejected from the surface of the sun and escaped its gravity, travelling at 8 million kph and taking 18 hours to reach Earth.). It is because the Northern Lights are so high up that they can be visible from several hundred kilometres away. Who solved the mystery of the Northern Lights? Here’s how and where to look for the aurora borealis, See nature's greatest light show in style: these are the very best Northern Lights holidays, departing in 2019 – designed especially for readers of the Times, Towering cedars or delicate cherry blossoms? Adventure travel doesn't always have to mean mountain biking or horse riding. The electrons and protons travel million of miles from the sun to the earth on a solar wind. Consequently more travellers are visiting Scandinavian countries in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. The lights also occur during the day, but we can only see them with the naked eye after dark. In some areas, such as Alaska or Greenland, they may be visible most nights of the year. Aurora is the Roman goddess of dawn and Boreas is the Greek term for the north wind, hence the name Aurora Borealis. Reply, Hi Anitha, we’ve passed your details onto our reservations team and they’ll be in touch with some suggestions . 3. This magnetic field protects the Earth from the solar wind by stopping it striking Earth directly. There are also the Southern Lights which offer a similar visual display. The change in energy between “excited” and original states has a specific value and the resulting photon has a specific color, or wavelength, Don Hampton, a research assistant professor at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, tells mental_floss. By entering your details, you are agreeing to Times Expert Traveller's terms and conditions. The colors of the polar lights depend on whether electrons collide with oxygen or nitrogen, and how energetically. The Sami people are indigenous to Norway, Sweden, northern Finland and the north-west region of Russia known as the Murmansk Oblast. Some North American Inuit call the auroras aqsarniit, or football players, believing they result from spirits of the dead playing football with the head of a walrus. The International Space Station sits at the same altitude as the Northern Lights meaning astronauts can see … Here are some of the most interesting facts, myths, and stories about the aurora borealis. This funnelling happens towards both North and South Poles, creating both the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, and the southern loights, or aurora australis. Some attempts to explain the Northern Lights were hampered by flaws in early belief systems. The ethereal glow comes from collisions [PDF] between fast moving electrons from the magnetosphere (the region of space controlled by Earth’s magnetic field) and oxygen and nitrogen molecules in our upper atmosphere. Electrons transfer some of their energy to these molecules when they collide; this transfer of energy is said to “excite” them. To give you the best possible experience, this website uses cookies. The Northern Lights are a naturally occurring phenomenon that happens when the solar wind comes into contact with the earth’s magnetic field. There are other theories about the perception of auroral noises, but no consensus as to whether they actually exist. Copyright © 2020 Times Newspapers Ltd 2018. By using our website, you accept our use of cookies. It diverts the solar wind around the Earth, but as the solar wind’s magnetic field meets the Earth’s magnetic field on the dark side of the Earth, pointing away from the Sun, the fields merge and some of the charged particles are funnelled back towards the poles where they meet the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Researchers can use the different colors to figure out such things as the energy level of the electrons bombarding our atmosphere and creating the aurora.

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