On dark evenings, people near the North Pole can witness an amazing sight. They can look up and see red, green, purple, and yellow lights flashing in the night sky. This colorful light show wasn’t created using technology, though. It’s the Aurora Borealis, a mysterious gift from Mother Nature.
Aurora Borealis [ ɔˌrɔrə bɔrɪˈælɪs ] n. 北極光（此為學名，一般英文用語則稱 the Northern Lights） mysterious [ mɪsˈtrɪəs ] a. 神祕的，難以解釋的
The name Aurora Borealis comes from the ancient world. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. Boreas was a Greek god who controlled the northern winds.
這個名字起源自遠古世界。是代表黎明的羅馬女神。則是掌控北風的希臘神祇。
dawn [ dɔn ] n. 黎明，破曉
In scientific terms, an aurora is a natural phenomenon. It happens when solar wind particles in space crash into gases in Earth’s atmosphere, which results in light energy.
The colors produced depend on the atoms in the air. Oxygen atoms create brown and red lights. Nitrogen atoms will make blue or purple lights. If atoms are close to the ground, the lights are often green.
Ancient people had different myths about the Aurora Borealis. Finnish people called the lights “fox fires” because they thought they resembled electric foxes running across the sky. In Greenland, the lights were considered holy. People believed they were the souls of dead children playing in the sky.
