Aurora Australis

Have you ever witnessed nature’s light show dancing across the night sky? This colourful display is often referred to and known as ‘The Southern Lights’. What causes this spectacular illumination, Aurora Australis?

Solar flares comes off the sun everyday. A solar flare is an  ejection of cloud filled with electrons, ions and atoms. These travel into space and go towards Earth.

Earth has a magnetic field around it. The magnetic field acts as an invisible shield for Earth. The particles from the solar flare hit Earth’s magnetic field. Earth's magnetic field directs the ions to the North and South Poles.

The ions accelerate. The ions collide with other particles in our atmosphere. The ions and the different particles release the energy in the form of light.

The two aurorae are really beautiful, especially at night. There are two names for these beautiful lights they are the Aurora Australis and Aurora Borealis.

By Solomon.H