\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\u0421\u0435\u0432\u0435\u0440\u043d\u043e\u0435](\"https:\/\/jigsawearth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1920px-Church_of_light-300x200.webp\")
Few sights in nature are as unforgettable as the northern lights: curtains of green light that ripple across a dark winter sky, sometimes edged with pink or violet. Their scientific name is the aurora borealis, and seeing them takes a little planning. Here is what causes them, when to look, and where on Earth your chances are best, with puzzles from each place.<\/p>\n
The Sun constantly sends out a stream of charged particles called the solar wind. When these particles reach Earth, our planet’s magnetic field guides many of them towards the polar regions. There, high in the atmosphere, they collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen and make them give off light, much like the gas in a neon sign.<\/p>\n
The colour depends on the gas and on the height. Oxygen about 100 to 250 kilometres up gives the familiar green, while oxygen even higher can glow red. Nitrogen adds touches of blue and purple, often along the lower edge of a bright display. In the Southern Hemisphere the same thing happens around the South Pole, where the lights are called the aurora australis, or southern lights.<\/p>\n