Space researchers have revealed that stargazers and amateur photographers have recently captured a new form of northern lights, or the so-called aurora borealis. The phenomenon of glowing green lights moving across the night sky has fascinated the public and experts alike. Some believe that the lights were depicted in prehistoric cave paintings, while the astronomer Galileo Galilei is said to have coined the Latin term.
Aurora Borealis rediscovered
The northern lights occur when the sun ejects charged particles, such as electrons, and directs them to the Earth's poles through our planet's magnetic field. There they interact with gases in the atmosphere, including oxygen and nitrogen, increasing the energy of those gases. Accordingly, this energy is then released as light.
The phenomenon, which its discoverers call “dunes,” is thought to be caused by waves of oxygen atoms glowing due to particles released by the sun. In the recently published study, scientists traced the origin of the dunes to a waveguide. This formed within the mesosphere and its boundary, the mesopause. The study also believes that this new form of Aurora Berealis will provide researchers with a new way to study conditions in the upper atmosphere.
Amateurs have taken thousands of magnificent photographs of the Northern Lights. Scientists measured these and categorized them for the book. Each shape is like a fingerprint that is unique to a particular phenomenon in the zone. During the classification, hobbyists pointed out that a particular formation did not fit into any of the already existing categories.
By an almost unbelievable coincidence, the photographers saw this unusual shape again a few days after the book was published. They then immediately informed the space researchers. The phenomenon appeared as a greenish and uniform wave pattern, resembling a striped veil of clouds or dunes on a sandy beach. Investigations into these phenomena were started, using hobbyist observations with scientific methodsStudiescame together to explain the waves.
