Auroras in our solar system part 1

Auroras, also known as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) or Southern Lights (aurora australis), are natural light displays that occur in the high-latitude regions of a planet's atmosphere 🌎🌍🌏Show more

Auroras are caused by the interaction between charged particles from the solar wind and a planet's magnetic field. As the charged particles enter the atmosphere of a planet, they collide with atoms and molecules, exciting them and causing them to emit light. The color of the aurora depends on the type of atom or molecule that is being excited. For example, oxygen atoms emit green and red light, while nitrogen atoms emit blue and purple light.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune also have strong magnetic fields, which cause their auroras to be much more intense than on Earth. In addition, these planets have moons that can also generate auroras, such as Jupiter's moon Io, which has active volcanoes that emit particles into Jupiter's magnetosphere

Earth - Credit: NASA / Josh Cassada