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From prehistoric times, humans have been
fascinated by the waxing and waning of auroral lights, the closest
and most dramatic manifestation of space phenomena. Spectacular auroral
eruptions have given rise to mythological creatures, have driven
folklore, and have influenced the course of history, religion, and
art.
The oldest known auroral citing was written in 2600 B.C. in China: "Fu-Pao, the mother of the Yellow Empire Shuan-Yuan, saw strong lightning moving around the star Su, which belongs to the constellation of Bei-Dou, and the light illuminated the whole area." Thousands
of years later, in 1570 A.D., a drawing of the aurora depicted candles
burning above the clouds.
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| Early
drawing of the aurora, depicted as candles
in the sky, 1570. (Original print in Crawford
Library,
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. (Click
for a larger image) |
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In 1619 A.D., Galileo Galilei coined
the term "aurora borealis" after
Aurora, the Roman goddess of morning. He had the misconception that the auroras
he saw were due to sunlight reflecting from the atmosphere.
Henry Cavendish made quantifiable observations of the aurora in 1790.
He used a technique known as triangulation to estimate that the aurora
light is produced
around 100-130 km in altitude (about 60 miles above Earth's surface). In 1902-1903
Kristian Birkeland, a Norwegian physicist, concluded from his "terrella experiment" that
auroral light was caused by currents flowing through the gas of the upper atmosphere.
This is exactly how our modern-day neon lights work.
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All
night long the northern streamers shot across
the trembling sky; Fearful lights that never
beckon; Save when kings and heroes die.
-Poet W. E. Aytoun (1813-1865) |
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Modern Art and Beliefs Related
to Aurora
In 2001, Maida Withers directed a new modern dance piece with
an international cast that was inspired by the aurora. "Dance of the Auroras, an
evening-length work of dance, music, and visual presentation, is a groundbreaking
poetic voyage in space from the Sun through Earth's auroras, the
mystic luminaries of the arctic and Antarctic skies also known as the Northern
and Southern Lights." – from their website.
There have been, and still are, many
different beliefs about the aurora and its association with the
spirit
world. Stories come from the Northern reaches of Alaska, Canada,
and Greenland telling of people's whistling bringing down
the aurora to cut of the whistler's head, and of auroras
as spirit ancestors to help hunters find their prey.
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