Earth is full of wonderful surprises. Every now and then, scientists and researchers discover phenomena that make us want to dig deeper into the mysteries of our planet. Recently European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Christoforretti shared a surreal video that will surely leave you spell-bound.
Samantha posted this mesmerising video on her Twitter account directly from the International Space Station (ISS). The video shows the orbital outpost orbiting the Earth with surreal auroras dancing below.
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The video shows auroras’ dance in the most captivating manner. Samantha shared it with the caption, “Electrically charged particles from the sun collide with air molecules. You can see them in the far northern and far southern regions of the Earth”.
The video shared on June 12 has already garnered over 34,000 views as netizens are in awe of the exquisite colourful lights.
Watch the viral video here:
Auroras are formed when the charged solar particles interact with the magnetic field of any planet. They are termed 'Aurora Borealis' in the North pole and 'Aurora Australis' in the South pole.
According to scientific research, the Sun ejects strong solar flares of varied intensity towards the Earth. If this solar ejection is too strong, some of its energy passes to reach the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The interaction between these solar particles and the Earth’s atmosphere leads to the emergence of streams of colourful lights. The oxygen releases the green and red light and the nitrogen releases the blue- and purple-coloured lights.
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Notably, the magnetic field is quite important for survival on Earth. This is because it protects us from harmful radiation energy and particles.
Interestingly, auroras can be spotted on other planets as well. Any planet that has a magnetic field around it can lead to aurora generation if solar particles interact with the magnetic coat.
UAE’s Hope probe had recently discovered a new kind of aurora on Mars. These polar lights have also been spotted on Saturn and Jupiter earlier.
