Over the Arctic, Auroras Collide

This three-frame animation shows auroras colliding on Feb. 29, 2008 and producing spectacular outbursts of light. (Image credit: Toshi Nishimura/UCLA.)

SAN

These

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Auroras are created when particles in the solar

Earlier

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After the

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A collision

Lyons thinks that this sequence of events

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Andrea Thompson is an associate editor at Scientific American, where she covers sustainability, energy and the environment. Prior to that, she was a senior writer covering climate science at Climate Central and a reporter and editor at Live Science, where she primarily covered Earth science and the environment. She holds a graduate degree in science health and environmental reporting from New York University, as well as a bachelor of science and and masters of science in atmospheric chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.