IC CU RTA I
G
A
M
Spot The Plough!
Why the Aurora show in our night
sky keeps us coming back for more.
Stunning multicoloured ripples across
the sky called auroras have caught
the imagination of people for many
centuries. The Aurora Borealis (Northern
Lights) can normally be seen near
the far north of our planet in Canada,
Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
At the other side of the planet, the
Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) forms
an oval shape around Antarctica.
Last year an aurora was even spotted
in the United Kingdom!
16
SPARK
Sometimes an aurora is barely visible.
But at other times the auroras can be
incredibly bright, multihued and fast
moving. Tall green curtains of lights,
red-tipped at their bottom, stretch
across the horizon. Up to a thousand
kilometres in length, they ripple, sway,
fold and unfold, then mysteriously
disappear, only to reform in a new
shape minutes later.