What Causes the Northern Lights?

Answer

The northern lights are produced by a combination of solar wind, the earths magnetosphere, and the earths atmosphere. Electrically charges particles from space enter the Earth's magnetosphere and collide with the gasses surrounding the Earth. The collisions create energy in the form of light emissions.
Ask.com Answer for: what causes the northern lights
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, is a luminous glow of the upper atmosphere which is caused by energetic particles that enter the atmosphere from above.
1 Additional Answer
Scientists aren't positive what causes them other than the simplest way to describe it is that the electrical charged particles accelerate along the earths magnetic field lines into the atmosphere,where the y collide with the gas atoms causing the atoms to give off light.
Q&A Related to "What Causes the Northern Lights?"
The northern lights are produced by a combination of solar wind, the earths magnetosphere, and the earths atmosphere. Electrically charges particles from space enter the Earth's magnetosphere
http://answers.ask.com/Science/Astronomy/what_caus...
The Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights (and the southern hemisphere's Aurora Australis) are caused by the interaction of Earth's magnetic field with the flow of highly-charged particles
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_cause_of_the...
solar winds in space.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_northern_lights_...
Gas mollecules in the ionsphere are electrically charged by the sun's energy causing bright lights to occur (the Northern Lights).
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_northern_li...
About -  Privacy -  AskEraser  -   -  Careers -  Ask Blog -  iPhone -  Android -  Help -  Feedback © 2013 Ask.com