The name 'Aurora' comes from the Latin word for sunrise or the Roman goddess of dawn. An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, it is usually a greenish colour but sometimes it is red or blue. This natural phenomenon usually occurs in areas known as the 'auroral zone' near the poles of the Arctic in the north and Antarctic in the south. In Southern hemisphere latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora australis or the Southern Light. An Aurora is caused by the collision of energetically charged particles with atoms in the high altitude thermosphere within our atmosphere. Auroras are associated with the solar winds that flow past Earth. These winds flow out from the Sun and contain plasma particles (ionized gas) which gets pulled into the Earth's magnetic pole fields. When they accelerate towards the Earth, collisions occur between these ion particles and nitrogen and oxygen atoms in our atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of amazing aurora lights.
