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275

Aurora Borealis? (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago (2 children)

At this time of year, at this time of the day, in this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I will absolutely never not hear Principal Skinner whenever I hear or read the words "Aurora borealis".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes!?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

May I see it?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Seymour! The house is on fire!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

No Mother, that’s just the Northern Lights!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So little text and still wrong. Why not at least read about it in Wikipedia? Or ask GPT?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Could you correct it for us mere mortals without in-depth aurora knowledge?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Sure. Red: It is the lower concentration of oxygen but also/mostly the lower overall pressure (lower number of partciles per volume). Only with lower pressure can there be fewer collisions and thus the exited state is not quenched.

Green: Any interaction of a random atom and the exited oxygen atom, that would otherwise emit red light, quenches the red light emission. Thus the faster green transition can take over.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Of course there had to be a persistent marine layer in my night skies these past few days. It's probably going to go away the day after the auroras do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

This is nice to know!