snow that the fox sweeps into the sky with his tail.
In Estonia, people believed that whales played a
game at night, which included a water jet.
Many Scandinavians thought they saw schools
of herring swimming across the skies in the lights,
and that this foretold that their fishermen would be
fortunate and catch many fish. In Icelandic legends
the northern lights were thought to ease the pain
of childbirth. However, if an expectant mother were
to look up at the lights, she would have cross-eyed
children. Natives of the Faeroe Islands off the coast
of Iceland warned their children never to leave
home without wearing a cap, as they feared the
lights would burn their hair.
At times the northern lights glow a deep red and
many cultures have taken this as an omen of war
and death. In Ancient Roman times, the sky glowed
bright red during the rule of the emperor Tiberius
(42 BCE to 37 CE). Tiberius thought the seaport
of Ostia on the Tiber River was on fire. He sent his
army to extinguish the flames but when his men
arrived they could find nothing except a blazing
sky. In Scotland and England, blood-red lights were
seen in the sky before the French Revolution. This
rare colour is typically the only hue of the northern
lights that is visible in Southern Europe.
The northern lights as seen from NASA’s Earth Observatory
NASA’S EARTH OBSERVATORY
The northern lights have also been reported
in China and Japan. Both cultures believe that a
baby conceived under the northern lights will
have good luck and good looks. In Ancient China,
people believed that dragons came from the
northern lights, and that the lights they saw were
the dragons’ fiery breath.
The Science of the Northern Lights
Today scientific studies can explain what causes the
northern lights, and we no longer need to depend on the
stories of those before us. The northern lights are caused
by the interaction of high-energy particles (usually electrons) with neutral atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of
the northern and southern hemispheres. The Earth’s
magnetic force directs particles from the sun towards
the sky directly above the magnetic poles. The sun’s
magnetic field gives off a high energy and as it rotates
on its axis, sunspots are created. On the surface of
the sun, the temperature is exceptionally hot and
gas molecules collide regularly, causing particles to
escape the sun’s magnetic field. The Earth’s magnetic
field is capable of repelling the escaped particles,