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Explore the mesmerizing world of auroras, meteors, rainbows, sun dogs, halos, and coronas - captivating natural occurrences in our atmosphere. Discover how these phenomena are created and their significance in our understanding of the universe.
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Auroras, Meteors, and Other Atmospheric Phenomena rainbows, sun dogs, halos, and lunar and solar coronas
Auroras • Auroras originate with the sun. • Titanic explosions on the sun eject charged particles into space and some hit our planet. • The particles cause the air to glow - what we call auroras.
Rainbows • Rainbows are caused by rain drops in the air. • These rain drops break light down into its many colors. • When we see the reflected light, we see sun’s spectrum
Sundogs • Sun dogs work much like rainbows, but the spectrum is caused by ice crystals high up. • Six-sided ice crystals produce the spectrum and scatter sun’s light.
Halos and Coronas • Halos around the sun an moon are nothing more than complete sundogs - or moondogs! • Coronas are caused only by light scattering.
Meteors • Meteors often arrive from space as meteor showers. • Meteors are caused by debris from passing comets. • The debris falls to Earth as a hot, shining streak.
Comets • Frozen remains from the formation of our solar system. • While not normally found in our planet’s atmosphere, comets can crash to earth. • One probably did so in northern Russia in the year 1908.