The Northern Lights 🌌

Also known as the Aurora Borealis

The northern lights, or the aurora borealis, are beautiful dancing waves of light that have captivated people for millennia. But for all its beauty, this spectauclar light show is a rather violent event. Energized particles from the sun slam into the Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph), but our plant's magnetic field protects us from the onslaught. As Earth's magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles the dramatic process transforms into a cinematic atmoshperic phenomenon that dazzles and fascinates scientists and skywatchers alike.

Though it was an Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who coined the name "aurora borealis" in 1619 - after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas - the earliest suspected record of the northern lights is in a 30,000-year-old cave painting in France. Since that time, civilizations around the world have marveled at the celestial phenomenon, ascribing all sorts of origin myths to the dancing lights. One North American Inuit legend suggests that the northern lights are spirits playing ball with a walrus head, while the Vikings though the phenomenon was light reflecting off the armor of the Valkyrie, the supernatural maidens who brought warriors into the afterlife.

As a child I had always seen polar lights being portrayed in children movies such as Brother Bear and Balto and it has always been a dream of mine to be able to see this natural phenomenom in person. To be able to see these beautiful lights it's best to find yourself in locations such as: Faikbanks, Alaska; Yellowknife, Canada; Svalbard, Norway; Abisko National Park,in Sweden; Rovaniemi, Finland; and pretty much anywhere in Iceland. The best time of year to see the northern lights is from the months of September to April since the sky is able to get dark enough to see the aurora.

Find out more at Space.com

Coded by Jacqueline Solorzano