Northern Lights: Myth Or Science Essay, Research Paper
Northern Lights: Myth or Science
The Northern Light are poetry, nature’s light show, and are quantum leaps in the oxygen
atom. They are elementary particle physics, superstition, mythology, and fairy tales. The
Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis have filled us with wonder and inspired artists; they have
frightened people to think the world’s end was at hand. More exact explanations of the
phenomenon could not be given until modern physics was refined, and knowledge of the Earth’s
magnetosphere was obtained from satellite data. Still people wonder what causes this effect we
call the Northern Lights.
Races of people throughout history concocted or reasoned explanations of the Northern
Lights. The Canadians in the region of Ontario, Ottawa, have a belief that the Aurora was
brought into being by the creator of the Earth, Nanahboozha, as a warning to mankind of impending
danger. As theses primitive Indians believed, so did many others. On the other hand, Galileo
Galiei, one of the greatest astronomer/physicists in history, had an explanation more along the
lines of what is held true today. “… An effect in my opinion which has no other origin than
that a part on vapor-laden air surrounding the Earth is for some reason unusually rarefied…so
that it’s upper part’s are struck by the sun and made able to reflect it’s splendor to us,
forming the Northern lights.”
To correct Galileo, we start with the sun whose energy production fluctuates on an
11-year cycle . Maximum production coincides with high sunspot activity when processes on the
sun’s surface throw particles far into space. These particles are the so-called “solar wind” and
cause the Northern Lights. The solar particles reach the Earth as a sort of solar rain that
comes in waves. Particles hitting the atmosphere cause a reaction to occurs creating undulating
ribbons of light as the waves of solar matter bombard the atmosphere.
As we can see, the real reason for the Northern lights existence is quite different from
ideas of generations past. Myths, Gods, and many stories have come about due to the phenomenon
known as the Northern Lights; many false but believed by the people of the time. Who knows? Our
reasons for the Northern Lights could be totally wrong also. For all we know about atmospheric
phenomenon, much more is unknown.