The term aurora borealis was coined by Galileo in 1619, from the Roman Aurora, goddess of the dawn, and the Greek
The … See more

Auroras are most commonly observed in the "auroral zone", a band approximately 6° (~660 km) wide in latitude centered on 67° north and south. The region that currently displays an aurora is called the "auroral oval". The … See more

A full understanding of the physical processes which lead to different types of auroras is still incomplete, but the basic cause involves the interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetosphere. The varying inte… See more

Earth is constantly immersed in the solar wind, a flow of magnetized hot plasma (a gas of free electrons and positive ions) emitted by the Sun in all directions, a result of the two-million-degree temperature of the Sun's outer… See more

Just as there are many types of aurora, there are many different mechanisms that accelerate auroral particles into the atmosphere. Electron aurora in Earth's auroral zone (i.e. commonly visible aurora) can be spli… See more

The discovery of a 1770 Japanese diary in 2017 depicting auroras above the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto suggested that the storm may have been 7% larger than the Carrington event, which affected telegraph n… See more