Sunday, November 3, 2013

APOD 2.2


Taken on September 12 in Iceland, an aurora is displayed in the dark sky. On the ground, you can see openings on Earth's crust known as fumaroles. Don't worry, this does not mean the Earth is going to cave in on us! These are openings are usually found in places with volcanic activity and are naturally formed to let out gases, heat and steam from the center of the core of the Earth. If we did not have this, the world would have probably blown up by now.

Relating this to astronomy, auroras, like that seen in the sky of this picture, are usually seen in the artic region as well as Antarctica.

Why is this?
Well on of the main reason is because these regions are magnetic poles which attract and react with the electrons and protons emitted from the Sun. What causes the varying colors is due to the different excited states of different atoms. For example, this green aurora is caused by oxygen becoming excited. Being that this picture was taken in Iceland, this place is very close to the North magnetic pole.

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