What would happen if you flew into the aurora borealis?

The aurora is emitted between 90 and 150 km in altitude (i.e. mostly above the ‘official’ boundary of space, 100 km), so ungloving your hand inside an aurora would likely be fatal (unless a fellow astronaut immediately reattaches your glove and repressurizes your suit).

Can a plane fly through aurora borealis?

“We can actually fly into the auroras,” says eye-witness Don Pettit, a Flight Engineer for ISS Expedition 30. Lately, the International Space Station has been flying through geomagnetic storms, giving astronauts an close-up view of the aurora borealis just outside their windows: video.

Can the Northern Lights hurt you?

While there are rare circumstances where auroras can be harmful to humans, these are so uncommon that the likelihood you will ever encounter them is slim. Any danger you might experience while seeing the Northern Lights will not come from the aurora itself, but from the extreme climate of the Arctic Circle.

Why shouldn’t you whistle at the Northern Lights?

Don’t whistle at the Northern Lights Alerted to your presence, the spirits of the lights will come down and take you away. Having said that, North American Indians often whistled at the Northern Lights to encourage them to come closer so they could whisper messages that would then be taken to the dead.

Is the aurora borealis hot?

The northern lights look like fire, but they wouldn’t feel like one. Even though the temperature of the upper atmosphere can reach thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, the heat is based on the average speed of the molecules.

Can astronauts see the northern lights?

Auroras, named after the Roman goddess of dawn, can be seen clearly from the ground and from space, such as aboard the ISS, where many astronauts have snapped photos of the ghostly light shows.

Does the aurora make a sound?

What is clear is that the aurora does, on rare occasions, make sounds audible to the human ear. The eerie reports of crackling, whizzing and buzzing noises accompanying the lights describe an objective audible experience – not something illusory or imagined.

Can you fly above the aurora borealis?

If you’ve ever been awestruck by the sight of the northern lights dancing overhead, imagine what it would be like to fly right through them. “We can actually fly into the auroras,” said NASA astronaut Don Pettit, a flight engineer for the orbiting lab’s current Expedition 30.

Do pilots see the Northern Lights?

Some pilots on intercontinental routes see the lights several times a year from the cockpit. But, no matter how many times you see it, it’s always special. Speaking from my own experience, I loved seeing the green waves dancing in the air. Spotting them during a night flight was hypnotising.

Why shouldn’t you whistle at the northern lights?

Why can’t we see the aurora borealis from the ground?

When billions of these collisions occur and enough photons are released, the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere emit enough light for the eye to detect them. This ghostly glow can light up the night sky in a dance of colors. But since the aurora is much dimmer than sunlight, it cannot be seen from the ground in the daytime.

Can an airplane fly through the Northern Lights?

No,because the northern lights are higher than airplanes go. The space shuttle has flown through them though. I don’t think so. The Northern Lights actually occur at an altitude much too high for any conventional airplane to maintain atmospheric lift without perhaps some rocketry or scramjet (not a conventional airplane).

What is the color of oxygen in the aurora borealis?

Oxygen emits either a greenish-yellow light (the most familiar color of the aurora) or a red light; nitrogen generally gives off a blue light. The oxygen and nitrogen molecules also emit ultraviolet light, which can only be detected by special cameras on satellites.

What causes the Northern Lights in the sky?

The “northern lights” are caused by collisions. between fast-moving particles (electrons) from space. and the oxygen and nitrogen gas in our atmosphere.