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
Aurora fur is stroked. They believed that the lights were the spirits of their departed friends dancing in the sky, and when they shone brightly it meant that their deceased friends were very happy. During the night after the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]], an aurora was seen from the battlefield. The [[Confederate Army]] took this as a sign that God was on their side, as the lights were rarely seen so far south. The painting "[[Aurora Borealis (painting)|Aurora Borealis]]" by [[Frederic Edwin Church]] is widely interpreted to represent the conflict of the [[American Civil War]]. A mid 19th-century British source says auroras