There ’s a new hypothesis about how STEVE , everybody ’s favorite aurora - comparable phenomenon , gets its otherworldly glow .
When STEVE wasfirst observedby amateur aurora spotters in 2018 , researchers reckon it was a new form of aurora borealis , otherwise have sex as the northern light , but a cryptic look let on that this heavenly phenomenon is actually dominate by white light , indicating it must produce light in a dissimilar way of life to distinctive aurorae . How exactly it pump out this light , however , remaineda bit of mystery .
Now , scientists have get a Modern theory . Reporting in the journalGeophysical Research Letters , scientists from the University of California Berkeley say the twinkle might be generated by fast - hang river of solar wind touch off chemical chemical reaction high up in Earth ’s atmosphere .
Your typicalaurora borealisproduces swirling ribbons of empurpled , mauve , and unripened luminousness in the night sky through the solar wind , a gamey energy gasolene of charged particle and negatron emitted by the Sun , smashing into Earth ’s magnetosphere . The send gas transfers much of its vigour into the O and nitrogen speck found in the ambience , charge up them and making them liberate a burst of Energy Department in the shape of light .
However , STEVE seems to be a slightly dissimilar storey . Earth ’s atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen and O gas that are bound together by pairs of atomic number 7 and O atoms ( N2and O2 ) , but in the upper ambiance where STEVE occur , single atoms of oxygen are often found ( O ) .
When tight - moving streams of solar wind hit the upper atmosphere , they can split nitrogen molecules ( N2 ) , which then combine with individual oxygen atoms to spring nitric oxide ( NO ) . The nitric oxide then peck up other gratuitous atomic number 8 atoms floating around the upper atmosphere to create N dioxide ( NO2 ) , a chemical reaction that produces a broad spectrum light make a white - purple glow .
This , for now , is just a theory . Although the chemistry appears to delineate up nicely with observations of STEVE , the researcher concede they have not test their mind in the real world . With that in judgment , they say they ’re perfectly felicitous to be prove ill-timed about their possibility .
“ It ’s just exciting for me to encounter something where , you could require a very simple query about it , like , ‘ What is this ? ’ And it turns out the resolution to that question is very nuanced and exciting and may indicate some new physics , ” lead source Dr Brian Harding , a distance physicist at the University of California Berkeley , said in astatement .
" It would be more exciting if this were untimely , then we ’re back at straight one , and nature had confounded us again , " added Harding .
