A question asked by someone just like you.

What is an aurora?

An aurora is a wavering glow of light that is seen sometimes in the night sky in the direction of the North or South poles. The ones we see in the Northern Hemisphere are sometimes also called the northern lights.

An aurora is caused by very fast, charged particles—mostly electrons—that came from the Sun. Because of the earth’s magnetic field, these are partially deflected so that they come into our atmosphere toward the North and South poles. When nitrogen molecules of our air are hit by those fast particles, they become very excited molecules.

They become ordinary molecules again by giving off energy as light. That gives the faint wavering glow we call an aurora.