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
Beta Coronae Borealis is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names. In Chinese, (), meaning "Coiled Thong", refers to an asterism consisting of Beta Coronae Borealis, Pi Coronae Borealis, Theta Coronae Borealis, Alpha Coronae Borealis, Gamma Coronae Borealis, Delta Coronae Borealis, Epsilon Coronae Borealis, Iota Coronae Borealis and Rho Coronae Borealis. Consequently, Beta Coronae Borealis itself is known as (, ). Beta Coronae Borealis was first announced to be a binary star in 1907, based on spectroscopic observations at Lick Observatory; J. B. Cannon published an orbit in 1914, finding a period of 40.9 days. Later spectroscopic investigations by F.