From The "No Shit!" Files

Energy source of northern lights found

AP - Tue Dec 11, 6:21 PM ET Sent 2,333 times

SAN FRANCISCO - Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of the spectacular color displays seen in the northern lights. New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun.
[...]

Haven't we known this for, oh, I dunno. The last hundred years or so?



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