What are the Northern Lights?

Have you ever seen the northern lights?

Also called aurora borealis (uh-ROAR-rah baw-ree-A-luhs), the northern lights occur when the sun sends a large amount of electrified gas and particles toward the earth, creating a solar storm. The energy and particles within a solar storm can travel through the magnetic fields of earth’s north and south poles and interact with gases in our atmosphere (AT-muh-sfeer). When the particles interact with oxygen, the lights glow green and red. When the particles interact with nitrogen, the lights glow blue and purple.

The northern lights are typically only visible at night in high-latitude regions, like Iceland, Norway, Canada, and Alaska. But in May 2024, the beautiful lights lit up the night sky as far south as Florida in the United States.

Did you know that the Southern Hemisphere has their own version of the lights? The southern lights, or the aurora australis (uh-ROAR-rah oss-TRAY-liss), appear in the sky in places like New Zealand and Australia.

The beautiful auroras that light up the sky declare God’s glory in the heavens (Psalm 19:1).

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