Nature's Light Show: Planetary Aurora - IoP Lecture
- Date
- Wednesday 20 January 2016
Public Lecture by the Institute of Physics.
Nature's Light Show: Planetary Aurora
Dr Sarah Badman, Lancaster University
Date: Wednesday 20th January 2016
Time: Tea, coffee and biscuits served from 6:30pm, for a 7pm start.
The northern lights are an intriguing phenomenon sometimes visible in the night sky. Also known as the aurorae, these displays are caused by particles crashing into the Earth’s atmosphere, making it glow. The brightest aurorae happen during storms in near-Earth space, and can be traced back to bursts of activity on the Sun. Aurorae have also been detected at the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, but telescope images reveal that they don’t behave in the same way as at Earth. In this talk we will investigate what causes the extra-terrestrial aurora, how we can observe them, and why they are different from those we see on Earth.
If you are bringing a group of 10 or more please contact Mike (M.E.Ries@leeds.ac.uk).