As I’m sure you know, the Sun is a bundle of particles experiencing incredibly high levels of heat, gravity, and confusion. This provides a situation that is hectic to say the least. And so, just like your average Joe, to blow off steam the Sun will occasionally blow off an unimaginable amount of charged plasma. The charged particles that constitute this plasma radiate out from the Sun and hurtle towards the orbiting planets. The charged particles that reach Earth have our magnetosphere to contend with. The Earth’s magnetosphere is strong for our planet’s size, this is thanks to its abnormally large iron core. The clash between magnetosphere and charged particles results in one of the most deeply beautiful performances to be observed on our world: the aurorae.

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As I’m sure you’re aware the sky is blue, clouds are white, and sunsets are red. Why does this happen? The Earth’s atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, a pinch of Argon and then a sprinkling of various other gases. So, our atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen and Oxygen, and the atoms of these gases generally like to wander around in twos. This is what we call a molecule, and both molecules are joined by a chemical bond that is about 300 picometres long (tiny! ...Read more