Cause of Aurora Borealis Confirmed

An anonymous reader writes "There are reports that satellites have aided scientists in confirming why the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) exists. '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. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights.'"

Comments

Re:The More Important Discovery

[Kagura]

So to sum up your entire post for those that come after me, you are saying "electric universe rules".

Re:Okay...

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"We've confirmed a theory that was already pretty well accepted as being fact."

Way to understate the importance of confirming theories. Heh.

This is the way it's supposed to work

[hyades1]

An excellent example of how science is supposed to get done.

We think we know. We're pretty sure we know. We're damned sure we know and nobody's even close to providing a better explanation. Alright.....this is how it is; take it to the bank. (But we'll still give you a hearing if you have convincing proof something else is happening. You'd better have a testable hypothesis, though).

The method isn't perfect, but it spits out right answers more often than anything else.