Aurora Borealis - Science Made Simple

Truly an amazing sight to see, either by pure luck or very expensive, but a must see all the same, in ones lifetime

Fortunately I have seen it several times free courtesy of the Grey Funnel Line
and twice by extortion

Jack McH

 

Extortion, good. I can think of some members that will aprove

 

If your lucky enough to see them, they are spectacular.

 

Thanks Shiney - that's something I would love to see.

Its really the same principle as a fluorescent light tube - but more romantic.

 

Outstanding video - has made me a litttle wiser ! Another amazing fact on the northern lights is that the pattern seen in the north is exactly the same as the one happening at the same time in the south the Aurora Australis .
The sun losing several billion tonnes of matter for every solar storm is a tad concerning :gaagh:I hope it has enough mass to last another few years !

 

With enough gravitational influence to hold the entire solar system in place, and lots of lumps of rock and ice floating about with less uniform orbit, I'd hazard a guess that the sun probably swallows up as much matter as it throws out.

 

Yes Clueless , it does bring the suns huge mass into scale when it can emit and swallow matter in billions of tonnes !