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Satellites seem to have discovered the source of the Northern Lights

To those of us who are closet astronomer wannabes, a story I recently read about the Northern Lights was fascinating. (The rest of you — feel free to read on anyway if you like.)

For several years, we lived in southern South Dakota, a bit too far south to see Northern Lights with any intensity or regularity. We did, however, get a glimpse of this eerie phenomenon two or three nights every winter. I don’t really know much more about them than that — except that the more scientific term for Northern Lights is, I think, aurora borealis. Which means something in Latin. I’m sure.

The story in the scientific world right now is about the discovery of twisted magnetic bands tens of thousands of miles about the Earth’s surface which apparently become the power source for these wonderful lights as the solar wind hits them.

I find it amazing that, after several decades of launching satellites to gather everything from space dust to weather data, we just now got a handle on this phenomenon. Good for us. It’s always good to see something positive come out of space research. To all you scientists, engineers, and researchers out there, I say this: "Keep up the good work!"

(Shameless personal note: I have a son who is an engineer now working as a senior research scientist. Brag. Brag. Brag.)
[tags]Northern Lights, aurora borealis, research satellites, astronomy, science, engineers, scientists, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]