Welcome to the Astro Minute, where we’re exploring the universe sixty seconds at a time. I’m Lauren Smyth, and today we’re exploring the northern lights.


The sun’s stormy season is upon us: the next peak of the eleven-year solar storm cycle is now predicted sometime between January and October of twenty-twenty-four. And more solar activity means more aurora borealis, or northern lights, even at lower latitudes. As the stormy sun blasts materials into space, they hit earth’s complex magnetic field, sending charged particles spiraling along the earth’s magnetic field lines toward the north and south magnetic poles. The particles then slam into the polar atmosphere, exciting oxygen and nitrogen and producing magnificent moving curtains of red, green, blue, and violet light. So check aurora forecasts at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, and keep your eyes open for these beautiful lights!


That’s your astro minute!