The Singular Mind

The Northern Lights

I recently stumbled upon an amazing gallery of pictures of Aurora Borealis, taken by Bjorn Jorgenson. There are some really phenomenal shots on there. Here are a few of my favorites, but with more than 70 pictures in the gallery, I'm barely scratching the surface.









Now a little education, courtesy my Astronomy class. Aurora Borealis (and Aurora Australis, its southern counterpart) is formed when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's magnetic field. Normally they are deflected around the earth by its magnetism, but near the poles the field forms almost a funnel shape, and the particles spiral down it towards the ground, creating the lights. But you know, it doesn't really matter how they happen, they're just really cool.

Labels: Gallery, Things of Interest

posted by Jeremy @ 11:19 AM