Northern Lights : A Life Time Moment
Officially known as Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights are one of nature’s most spectacular visual phenomena. Appearing in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, curtains or shooting rays, the northern lights’ amazing light display can be observed in the sky of high latitude regions such as Norway. There are many interesting facts about this unreal spectacle that are worth learning. Here are 5 of them, illustrated with some of the most amazing Northern Lights pictures you have ever seen.
1.) There have been many legends about the Northern Lights. Some North American Inuit tribes call the aurora „aqsarniit“ (meaning “football players”) thinking it is the spirits of the dead playing football with a head of a walrus.
2.) The Southern Lights offer the same visual display as the Northern Lights but since the South Pole is even more inhospitable and inaccessible than the North Pole, it is more difficult to view the Southern Aurora. Therefore, the Northern Lights are more popular and get almost all the attention.
3.) Although missing a magnetic field, an aurora-like phenomenon has been also observed on Jupiter. Scientists suggest it can be caused by the reaction between the solar wind and the ions in the Venus´ ionosphere.
4.) The term Aurora Borealis was derived from Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas.
5.) Apart from a spectacular visual display, the lights also produce faint sounds such as claps, crackles, and static sounds. However, the aurora noise is so rare that hearing it is probably possible only during times of maximum aurora activity, on windless nights away from other noise sources.
