[Music] on Arctic nights the Aurora often Flames across the winter Sky what is it and where does it come from this is where the tale of the Aurora starts on the sun a star of average size among billions of other stars in our Milky Way the sun acts as an enormous power plant the energy is created deep inside the core of the [Music] Sun here the temperature is over 14 million Dees and the pressure so enormous that hydrogen atoms are squeezed together into another element helium this nuclear reaction releases energy the light radiates outward from
the core of the Sun in the outer layers the heat moves to the surface in huge edes called convection cells these electrical currents of charg gas create magnetic fields inside the Sun in some places strong magnetic fields push their way up through the surface they slow down the edes of hot gas the surface cools and darker sunspots appear the electrically charged gas is called plasma the plasma drags the magnetic field further outwards the magnetic field stretches and twists like a rubber band and then the rubber band breaks several billion tons of plasma is hurled out
from the Sun this is called a solar [Music] [Music] storm the solar storm can reach speeds over 8 million kilm an hour after 6 hours it blows past the planet Mercury [Music] after 12 hours the planet [Music] Venus and after 18 hours the solar storm reaches Earth when the solar storm reaches our planet something strange happens an invisible shield the Earth's magnetic field deflects the storm the magnetic fields couple together and create a funnel where the gas streams down on the daylight side of the pole this is the daylight Aurora the magnetic fields stretch further
back and couple together the magnetic rubber band breaks and gas from the solar storm streams along the magnetic lines towards the poles on the night side this is the nighttime Aurora [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
