why the southern part have a colourful atmosphere at night
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It’s caused due to the Earth deflecting charged particles to the poles.The sun emits something called a solar wind. This is just a constant stream of charged particles, usually electrons, that make their way outward from the sun. The Earth has a magnetic field that blocks the vast majority of these particles. However, just like a bar magnet, the magnetic field lines must crease a closed loop somewhere. Due to the spin of the earth and the earth’s core, these magnetic flux lines (or loops) originate and end a the poles.Charged particles interact with this field and are deflected. Some of them are in the sweet spot and are deflected around the magnetic field and into the polar regions of the earth.These particles then interact with the atmosphere. Due to their speed and charge, some of them will hit oxygen, nitrogen and other common atmospheric molecules. Electrons that orbit the atoms that make up these molecules feel the full force of these charged particles, giving them extra energy. This knocks them into a higher energy state (that’s a topic for another time), from which they degrade back to a more comfortable ground state. As they hop back down, they must release energy. This energy is in the form of photons, of different colours depending on the molecule or atom that was hit and the state of the electron.
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Over the past few months night sky watchers in the southern parts of Australia have been presented with lots of beautiful displays of the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights.
So what causes the impressive display of lights in the night sky?
As with any scientific question, the easy questions often don’t have easy answers. First we need to know a little bit about the sun and its behaviour.
The sun is not a constant bright object in the sky. It’s true that its brightness doesn’t change much in the visible range (a fraction of a percent over its cycle) but it is much more variable in the ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray range.
In fact x-rays from the sun go from virtually none to frequent events, and back to none, over a cycle known as the solar cycle.
This cycle lasts on average a little more than 11 years but can be a year and a bit longer or shorter from one cycle to the next.
So what causes the impressive display of lights in the night sky?
As with any scientific question, the easy questions often don’t have easy answers. First we need to know a little bit about the sun and its behaviour.
The sun is not a constant bright object in the sky. It’s true that its brightness doesn’t change much in the visible range (a fraction of a percent over its cycle) but it is much more variable in the ultraviolet (UV) and x-ray range.
In fact x-rays from the sun go from virtually none to frequent events, and back to none, over a cycle known as the solar cycle.
This cycle lasts on average a little more than 11 years but can be a year and a bit longer or shorter from one cycle to the next.
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