What are some facts about the northern lights?

Answer 1

This research paper is about the northern lights by Bethany Hammon and Alexandria Johnson. The northern lights are colors/streams of light that appear in the in Northern parts of the earth. The Aurora Borealis, is caused when material thrown off the surface of the sun collides with the atmosphere of the Earth. The emission of light from atoms is excited by electrons accelerated along the planet's magnetic field lines Northern Lights can be viewed just about anywhere but they are more likely to be seen in Canada, Alaska, and Antarctica, they have also been seen has far as south of Mexico. To view them look to the closest pole. You can see them anytime of the year in some areas they may be visible most nights of the year and they occur at any time of the day, but we can't see them with the naked eye unless it's dark. Aurora displays appear in shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet and are usually brightest in the northern parts of the world. The skylights occur between 35 miles and 600 miles above the earth. There is many folk tales about northern lights, here is a few of them. In olden times people in Finland believed that up in the north there is a giant fox and when the fox moved its tail, it creates the Northern Lights. Based on what people in Finland believed they called the northern lights Revontulet which meant fox tails. Some North American Inuit's call the northern lights football players and say the spirits of the dead are playing football with a head of a walrus. There are even some story's that warn kids to stay away from the lights because it will take them away. The Point Barrow Eskimos were the only Eskimo group who considered the aurora an evil thing. In the past they carried knives to keep it away from them. Some people believed it was gods or goddesses appearing to mortal human beings. Another legend, calls them the flaming torches carried by departed souls guiding travelers to the afterlife. The Salteaus Indians of Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of Alaska saw the northern lights as the dancing of human spirits. The Eskimos who lived by the Yukon River believed that the aurora was the dancing of animal spirits, most of those of deer, seals, salmon and beluga. An Algonquin myth tells of when Nanahbozho, creator of the Earth, had finished his task of the creation, he traveled to the north, where he remained. He built large fires, of which the northern lights are the reflections, to remind his people that he still thinks of them.