Hello Earth, I am Sally. I am an astronaut, and I love discovering new things.

Today, I saw a picture of auroras. They are colorful lights that you can see around the North-Pole and South-Pole.

They are beautiful, and I am curious about how they happen. Shall we learn about them?

First, let’s visit our light source… The Sun!

The journey starts here. The hotness of the Sun’s surface isn't the same for all places. Some places are colder, and some places are hotter.

The hottest is the outer layer named Corona. In this part, there are tiny particles that are always moving. Sometimes, these particles move too fast and leave the layer.

When they leave the surface, they start travelling in streams through space. We call them solar winds.

The streams travel fast and go long distances in space. The Sun has a magnetic layer that helps the streams to move towards space.

After some time, the streams come to visit the Earth. The Earth has its magnetic field. It works like a shield, it protects the Earth from dangers. Most of the streams bounce back from that shield, but some of it can pass around the North-Pole and South-Pole.

While the streams are passing, they leave colorful lights behind them. We call them auroras.

Now that we know about solar winds and auroras, I am more excited about seeing auroras, an effect of the solar winds. Thank you for joining my adventure, my dear friend.