ALASKA: THE MAGIC OF AN AURORA BOREALIS

Source: Super Tight Stuff.

By Gundhramns Hammer

December 3, 2013

We inhabit an unforgiving Universe. But we are lucky there is a protective layer around our home planet: Earth. We are safe.

Were it not for Mother Earth having this magnetic field, we would not be here. This magic mantle protects all of us earthlings from the cold and inhospitable vastness of the outer space.

This magnetic mantle  keeps the solar wind from damaging life on Earth. Should the solar wind ever penetrate, we would be instantly killed and our ashes be swept away into the depths of the Universe.

The collision of the charged particles from the solar wind with the atoms floating in the upper part of the atmosphere (thermosphere) can be seen in the high latitudes (Arctic, Antarctic) as a display of colourful lights dancing in the sky. This phenomenon is called Aurora Borealis (Video 1). It is one of the most beautiful spectacles to see.

                            Video 1. Aurora borelis as seen from Eureka, Alaska.

If you are looking for something truely magic, this is it. Our Newtonian science can explain the mechanism and functioning of an aurora borealis. This is quite true. But it cannot take its magic away.

To be in front of an aurora borealis is to be transported to another time, a time when there was no life and yet life itself was already beating deep inside the atoms themselves.