Auroras: They’re colorful, mesmerizing and, most of all, mysterious. Scientists understand the basic physics behind how charged particles interact with our atmosphere to produce these dancing lights. But the larger mechanics of when, why and how auroras appear still aren’t very well understood.
One particular mystery is that the northern and southern lights don’t always match up like researchers would expect. For years, scientists assumed that aurora borealis and aurora australis would mirror each other. That is, people in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles would see a similar show if their positions were just right. But recent research has shown that’s not the case. And now a team led by scientists from the University of Bergen in Norway thinks they have an answer.
Read more: Everything worth knowing about auroras
If you simply imagine our planet’s vast magnetic field like the classic bar magnet moving around iron filings, you’d expect ...
