At a glance: The spectacular 'Aurora Borealis' and 'Aurora Australis'

New Delhi: There are some really interesting things that take place in nature and as dwellers of the planet Earth we can just look at them with awe as to how nature creates such beautiful things.‘Aurora Borealis' is one such thing that take place in the northern and southern poles of the Earth. It is a beautiful activity to watch out and explorers and people with inquisitive mind go to these places just to get the glimpses of this beautiful art which nature displays . It looks as if nature is playing with colours.Let us know some more interesting things about this unique activity of nature.The dazzling lights of the aurora are actually the impact 0f electrically charged particles from the sun entering the earth'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..Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink is the most general. But saying that we can also see tinges of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet.The lights appear in many forms from patches or dispersed clouds of light to streamers, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an uncanny glow. They are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere.Differences in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are smashing against one another. 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. We know that sun is a large mass of hot gases and the amount of temperature can be said to be near millions of degrees Celsius. The lights of the Aurora generally extend from 80 kilometres (50 miles) to as high as 640 kilometres (400 miles) above the earth's surface. Northern Lights can be seen in the northern or southern hemisphere, in an irregularly shaped oval centred over each magnetic pole. The lights are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south.After a lot of research, scientists have discovered that in most instances northern and southern auroras are mirror-like images that occur at the same time, with similar shapes and colors. It is this uniqueness which attracts a lot of people to visit these place to look at such an unique feature.The phenomenon occurs near the magnetic poles, northern lights have been seen as far south as New Orleans in the western hemisphere, while similar locations in the east never experience the mysterious lights.However the best places to watch the lights (in North America) are in the northwestern parts of Canada, particularly the Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Alaska.Auroral displays can also be seen over the southern tip of Greenland and Iceland, the northern coast of Norway and over the coastal waters north of Siberia. Southern auroras are not often seen as they are concentrated in a ring around Antarctica and the southern Indian Ocean.'Aurora borealis', the lights of the northern hemisphere, means 'dawn of the north'. 'Aurora australis' means 'dawn of the south'.