The northern lights, aurora borealis, is an event that occurs mostly at night at high northern latitudes. The show forms when charged particles, "solar wind," from the sun enter the Earth's magnetic field. The particles crash into the earth's upper atmosphere above the polar regions causing the atmosphere to emit a radiant, multicolored glow.

The scientific name, aurora borealis, means "red dawn of the north" in Latin and was first used by scientist Galileo Galilei.