Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the almost psychedelic vision of the vibrant green and purple lights dancing across the sky. The desire to catch a glimpse of what are officially known as the aurora borealis and aurora australis has given rise to designated tours, watch parties and numerous tracking apps.
And while the attraction of the ephemeral display is clear, here are a few things you may not know about the northern and southern lights.
Huge explosions on the surface of the sun, known as solar storms, regularly eject vast streams of electrically charged particles. Some of this plasma ends up traveling toward Earth, and is pulled toward the planet's magnetic poles.
"These particles then slam into atoms and molecules in the Earth's atmosphere and essentially heat them up," explained astronomer Tom Kerss on the Royal Museums Greenwich website. "It's very much like heating a gas and making it glow."
The different colors of light depend on the elements in the atmosphere. Oxygen, which makes up about 21% of the atmosphere, gives off a green color when heated, while nitrogen tints the lights purple, blue or pink.
Interactions with oxygen at very high altitudes can even lend the lights an intense scarlet red color, but that's relatively rare.
The light show is usually only visible up near the Arctic Circle — or, in the case of the aurora australis, around Antarctica. But we've just ended an 11-year cycle of powerful sunspots and flares, known as a solar maximum, during which the lights have painted the sky much farther from the poles.
"When you have more [solar] energy coming in, the northern oval and the southern oval expand," Katie Herlingshaw, a researcher in upper atmospheric physics based on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, told DW.
Recent displays have been spotted in Hungary, Switzerland and the US state of Florida, as well as southern Australia and New Zealand.
"Almost all cycles, if not every cycle… they all have these last gasps during the declining phase," Tamitha Skov, a space weather physicist, told Space.com in October 2025.
"Typically, the last gasp will come within about two to three years before solar minimum. So, within about the next year and a half to two years, we should see something."
Researchers at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory, the world's northernmost aurora station on Svalbard, have been investigating the solar energy particles contained within the northern lights and their potential for damaging the ozone layer.
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Noora Partamies, an atmospheric physicist at the observatory, told DW the polar regions sometimes experience "big ozone depletion" as a result of the aurora borealis.
The ozone layer, that thin layer of gas some 15 to 30 kilometers (9-19 miles) above the Earth's surface, is a key shield protecting us from the sun's harsh radiation.
"The level of depletion can be very variable," said Partamies, adding that some solar protons are very energetic and can cause stratosphere ozone depletion of 50% or 70% in the upper stratosphere of the polar region, damage that can linger for weeks before it heals naturally.
Though harder to spot, auroras have been observed on most planets in our solar system. Their size and intensity are related the planet's atmosphere and the strength of its magnetic field.
On Mars, which instead of an Earth-like global magnetic field has a more localized field mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, the light show is more spread out.
"A diffuse green glow seems quite possible in the Mars sky, at least when the sun is throwing off energetic particles," Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado told NASA.
Incidentally, astronauts orbiting on the International Space Station have also been able to enjoy the light show from their unique perspective — and sometimes even pass through them.
Potential sightings of the aurora borealis have been recorded as far back as 3,000 years ago, in a Chinese text dated to the 10th century B.C.E., which described a "five-colored" appearance in the northern night sky.
Over the centuries, these natural phenomena have inspired awestruck societies all over the world. The name itself is linked to Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn and Boreas, the Greek god responsible for the north wind. And the miraculous lights were often interpreted as a prophecy, or a sign from the gods.
Ancient Norse myths tied the aurora borealis to the reflections from the armor and spears of the Valkyries, the warrior women who lead fallen soldiers to Valhalla. They were also thought to represent the Bifrost Bridge, the magical rainbow arch linking Earth to the home of the gods.
The Finnish word for the northern lights translates to "fox fire," and recalls a mythical, elusive creature with a flaming tail that would whip snow crystals into the air as it ran through the countryside, setting the skies on fire.
Native American and Inuit myths associated the lights with creator gods, evil giants or the spirits of stillborn babies and dead ancestors. For many cultures, from the Saami in Lapland to North American tribes, the lights were to be feared and respected — something as simple as whistling, for example, could call on the wrath of the spirits to come down and snatch the thoughtless offender away.
Additional reporting by Louise Krüger.