Southern Lights

     Southern Lights

Southern light known as a Aurora is a natural light that can be easily seen in the sky. When the Southern Lights occur around the Earth, the colours usually change because of the oxygen that cause it in space. The oxygen usually produces green or red colours and the nitrogen produces blue and red also. These colours can combine to produce different colours such as purple.  The word Aurora means “Roman goddess of dawn”. It was named after an Italian scientist, Galileo Galilee. Another meaning for it in Greek which means in English “wind of north”. Aurora is caused by collision of charged particlesof atoms in the high thermosphere and atmosphere of the earth. Auroras can also take place in other planets in the solar system, for example; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Mars. The southern lights can also be seen in the Antarctic, areas in Tasmania, and southern parts of New Zealand.

Here is a legend I want to share with you about southern lights: snce Tama-rereti was a child, he was so interested in the stars. One evening, as he lay his back watching the beautiful, shining stars, the night quickly became alive with the colours green, blue, and crimson lights that danced and jumped across the southern sky. Tama-rereti became more interested. As he grew older and became a powerful chief, he decided to build a big waka and sail south in it to find where the southern lights came from.

By: Raheal Mengistu