LIGHT SHOW

Ledger photo by Melissa Haugen

The northern lights put on a fabulous display Sunday evening. In the northern hemisphere, the phenomenon is referred to as aurora borealis. Near the South Pole, it is called an aurora australis. According to NASA, the event occurs during a solar storm, the sun "burps out a huge bubble of electrified gas that can travel through space at high speeds. When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earth's atmosphere. There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple. Auroras occur on other planets as well. NASA.gov has pictures of auroras on Jupiter and Saturn.