![]() ![]() As those waves get closer to Earth, they move even faster thanks to the planet's magnetic pull. In some cases, the sun's disturbances are so strong that they yank on the Earth's magnetic field like a rubber band, pulling it away from our planet.īut, like a taut rubber band when it's released, the magnetic field snaps back, and the force of that recoil creates powerful ripples known as Alfvén waves about 80,000 miles from the ground. The sun is volatile, and violent events there such as geomagnetic storms can echo out into the universe. ![]() "But no one had ever come up with a definitive demonstration that the Alfvén waves actually accelerate these electrons under the appropriate conditions that you have in space above the aurora." How the aurora form "It was sort of theorized that that's where the energy exchange is occurring," said Gregory Howes, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa. That creates cosmic undulations known as Alfvén waves that launch electrons at high speeds into Earth's atmosphere where they create the aurora. Physicists have long speculated about what gives rise to this very specific light phenomenon that occurs in the Earth's polar regions.Īn article published in the journal Nature Communications this week suggests that the natural light show starts when disturbances on the sun pull on Earth's magnetic field. Not even knowing for sure what causes them. Nothing can ruin our joy in the aurora borealis, or northern lights, those ribbons of blue, green and violet light that cascade from the sky. The northern lights (aurora borealis) illuminate the sky over Reinfjorden in Reine, on Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle in 2017. ![]()
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