Why Scientists Recreated the Northern Lights in a Lab

Auroras like the famous Northern Lights have captivated humans for millennia. But scientists haven't been able to prove exactly how they form—until now.

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For decades, the exact science of how the northern lights form in our night sky has eluded experts. And we have finally proved just how these dazzling light shows happen.

Auroras appear in the upper atmosphere near the poles and they first were mentioned in texts thousands of years ago. But it wasn’t until the late 1800’s that a Norweigian physicist first made the connection between electric currents in Earth’s magnetic field and auroras in the sky.

And it’s only been since the beginning of the 20th century that scientists have known the basics of how auroras work. Today, we know that all auroras begin with solar activity. The sun puts out a continuous stream of charged particles called the solar wind.

They’re responsible for producing the most intense auroras. They disrupt the magnetic field lines, creating ripples that rebound back toward Earth known as Alfven waves. And this is where the mystery starts.

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Read More:
Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfvén waves
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23377-5
"While the aurora has attracted attention for millennia, important questions remain unanswered. Foremost is how auroral electrons are accelerated before colliding with the ionosphere and producing auroral light."

Aurora sighted in northern U.S. as powerful geomagnetic storm continues
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/05/12/aurora-northern-lights-us-canada/
"Earth’s magnetosphere transforms the potentially hazardous electromagnetic energy into curtains of visible light that we see as the aurora. The more intense the disturbance, the farther away from the poles the lights will extend."

Mystery of Jupiter's powerful X-ray auroras finally solved
https://www.space.com/jupiter-x-ray-auroras-mystery-solved
"Mysterious flares of X-rays from Jupiter's auroras suggest that the giant planet's "northern lights" may possess unexpected similarities with those of Earth, a new study finds."
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