Ever wondered how the nothern lights are made?
Nasa has revealed how an ‘unexpected blob’ in radar data has allowed astronomers to explain the origins of a mysterious type of aurora.
It turns out they can actually be used to trace the movements of the Van Allen belts, which encircle the Earth. These huge structures mostly consist of charged particles produced by the sun and then blown into space as ‘solar wind’. ‘Known as structured diffuse aurora, it was recently discovered, with the help of NASA spacecraft and instruments, that these faint lights in the night sky can map the edges of the Van Allen radiation belts – hazardous concentric bands of charged particles encircling Earth.
Nasa scientists were able to explain the aurora by analysing radar data gathered at Poker Flat, a research facility and rocket range in Alaska.
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