UFO News Oct. 25, 2011 Northern Lights Edition

R: Hello and welcome to UFO News. I’m Ross Well.
H: And I’m Harry Thing. The sky is falling! What the heck was that in the sky last night? Are we under attack from outer space?
R: Well in a way, yes we are Harry.
H: Oh my God! It’s finally happened! We’re under attack!
R: Harry! We are not under attack. At least not in the way you think.
H: We’re not?
R: No. What you saw was just the northern lights.
H: Oh. I’ve heard of those. The areola borealis.
R: “Aurora” Borealis.
H: What causes that?
R: The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.
H: So these particles are coming from the sun?
R: Yes. Though the particles were emitted from the sun on Saturday, they only hit earth’s atmosphere Monday night. Earth’s magnetic field was hit by a coronal mass ejection.
H: I had one of those last night after eating that burrito.
R: Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun's atmosphere by the rotation of the sun and escape through holes in the magnetic field. Blown towards the earth by the solar wind, the charged particles are largely deflected by the earth's magnetic field. However, the earth's magnetic field is weaker at either pole and therefore some particles enter the earth's atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light that we perceive as the dancing lights of the north (and the south).
H: It sounds like the sun is farting and that must have been a pretty big one. The lights were seen as far south as the Carolinas in the United States. If someone did not know what it was, it could really freak them out.
R: Well Harry, our ancestors did not know what caused them. The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin believed that the lights indicated the location of giants who were the spirits of great hunters and fishermen. The Inuit of Alaska believed that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted. The seals, salmon, deer and beluga whales. Other aboriginal peoples believed that the lights were the spirits of their people. The Maori of New Zealand shared a belief with many northern people of Europe and North America that the lights were reflections from torches or campfires. In medieval times, the occurrences of auroral displays were seen as harbingers of war or famine.
H: Okay, now you are starting to freak me out. What does Aurora Borealis mean?
R: It means 'dawn of the north'. In Roman myths, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn. : That’s all the time we have for tonight. Visit Mr. UFO at his blog for a view of the video in question and see for yourself and feel free to leave a message. I’m Ross Well.
H: And I’m Harry Thing saying.
R: Keep your face to space!
H: I think I feel another one of those colon mass ejections coming on.

Northern lights time lapse Oct. 24, 2011: http://youtu.be/VIitTNFJ-vI

Watch this edition of UFO News again: http://youtu.be/NRicQo8j84o