Aurora Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), sometimes referred to as polar lights, northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in the Earth's sky, predominantly seen in the high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras are produced when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric
Linnaea borealis at the base. The flowers are paired, pendulous, long, with a five-lobed, pale pink corolla. "Linnaea borealis" was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in "Species Plantarum". It was then the sole species in the genus "Linnaea". The genus name had been used earlier by the Dutch botanist Jan Frederik Gronovius, and was given in honour of Linnaeus. Linnaeus adopted the name because "Linnaea borealis" was his favourite plant. "Linnaea borealis" is considered to be a single circumboreal species, with three generally recognized subspecies: The English name "twinflower" for "Linnaea borealis" refers to the plant's paired flowers. "Linnaea