Aurora Borealis Astronomy Posters
for the science and social studies classrooms, and home schoolers.

The glow and colorful “curtains” of light known as aurora borealis, or northern lights, are caused by electrons colliding with atoms in the ionosphere portion of the thermosphere and shaped by the Earth's magnetic field or magnetnosphere. Auroras are seen in both polar regions, in the southern hemisphere they are called aurora australis.

The name aurora is the Latin word for dawn and also the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn. Borealis comes from the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. (You've heard of boreal forests? Those are the forests in the exteme northern areas of the world.) Thermos is from the Greek for ‘heat’.

Click on image to right to see schematic of Earth's atmosphere.