Camäléon

Das Schülermagazin des Deutsch-Französischen Gymnasiums Saarbrücken

The Word Of The Week: #AuroraBorealis

Aurora Borealis
Foto: Noel Bauza / pixabay.com

This week, something quite extraordinary happened: The Northern Lights, also known as Aurora Borealis, were sighted in parts of southern England and in some parts of Europe! The magical lights were even visible in France and Germany. How unbelievable is that? Astronomers say that we will get to see the Northern Lights a lot more in the close future because of the solar maximum, which is basically the sun being more active until it reaches the peak of its 11 year cycle. Whether the beautiful lights are red, green, blue, purple, white or yellow, depends on the altitude at which the solar particules collide with our atmosphere. But although the increase of Northern Lights seems to be just wonderful, it also means that there is an increased risk for power grids and satellites!

And on top of that, people in our region were able to see the brightly shining planets Venus and Jupiter right next to each other by just looking at the sky without a telescope! So if you happen to look in the sky at night and see two really big stars, you might actually be looking at Jupiter (778,6 millions of kilometers away from Earth) and Venus (41,4 millions of kilometers away from Earth)!

Anouk Viero

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