Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there. So this is Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Uh, we want to give before we get started, a big congratulations to our newest colleagues, Emily and Bridget with the official relaunch of stuff Mom never told you, Yeah, Chuck. They just debuted last week, I believe, and they come out Wednesdays and Fridays. Huh yeah, so Monday, Tuesday, well, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the four of us have you covered? Yeah, it's true. Do we have any shows that come out on Monday? We do? All right, Well, Jerry's nodding, so that means we've got you covered every day of the week. Let's just say that. Nice. That's the How Stuff Works way. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, just congratulations to them. That's awesome. I know that they've been running classic episodes while they were down and getting restarted, and uh it's no small thing to come in and take a show over. But they're doing an awesome job and are both uh great broadcasters. And you know, I'm I'm in support of them. Yeah, that's my official position. I know that sounded weirdly political. Yeah, good luck and best twishes to Bridget and Emily. So you guys go check it out Wednesdays and Fridays anywhere you get podcasts. You can get stuff Mom never told you. Yes, and apologize. I apologize for my voice. Oh yeah, what's up with your voice? Man? I've just had this upper respiratory thing that won't go away, that stinks, and so unless I'm constantly wetting my throat, it gets weirdly deep and cracky. So are you paying a lot more than usual? Well, I'm drinking a lot of water. I'm peeing a lot, but I would literally have to drink between every sentence to keep it silky smooth. Oh do you want to record today? No, I'm fine. I'm not in pain, but I just don't want anyone's ears to be in pain. Have you heard of um? Oh? Man, now that I say it, I realized I don't know the name of the brand. But you know those like cough drops that are actually like candy, but they market them as cough drops, the cherry flavored ones. M No, I mean like they're literal candy. Um no, but it's basically the most delicious jolly rancher you've ever had. It lacks the sour, it's all sweet. So it's green apple. No, they're red. I can't remember what they're called. People are screaming at their um. Yeah, well their phones, their tablets, their computers. Right now, settled down, everybody, Yes, we chuck and I agree with you. This is maybe the worst intro we've ever done. And Jerry does too. So let's get to it, shall we. So we're talking aurora's today. Yeah, and generally we're talking about the two most famous auroras. Uh And I say too, because I don't even want to give I don't want to short change the Aurora Australis. No, it definitely does get short changed, though totally. Did you Did you come upon why? I came upon the explanation a couple of times? Oh about why? Yeah? Uh I didn't. But I'm gonna have a guess. Okay, let's have it. Is it not quite as magnificent? Nope? Are there not as many people there? Yes? There you go, There are fewer. There's there's less land around the South Pole as there is around the North Pole. Um, I should say the magnetic South and North pole. Um. So there's fewer eyes to see it, so the grandeur of it is is um less obvious too as many people. But yeah, that's that's why the Northern Lights get all the all the top billing. Plus, no one ever named a strain of weed after the Aurora Australis out about that too. Southern Lights, what is that? I bet you there's one. There's a poison. There a like a head shop in Atlanta called Southern Lights. I think it's a bookstore. Oh got it? Wink wink. Oh yeah, but where you can where you can buy rush and spice books. Well, I I don't understand. I'm just kidding. Let's see. Is that like a code for something? Well, I thought you were giving me the code, Chuck. I think it's a real bookstore, gardening books. This is the most confused I've ever been on this show. Like we're on a cell phone and have to keep things, you know, straight up? All right, all right, let's get back to it. I don't want to confuse you so Auroras, because I want to make sure that you is uh comes through Um the the there are two and Chuck apparently until very re cerently. It was assumed because people couldn't see him at the same time, but it was assumed that there the northern lights that you were seeing the Aurora borealis. Um, if you could simultaneously see the Aurora Australias, you would be seeing a mirror image of one another. And they recently found out that that's absolutely not true at all. They finally got someone down there to look some some poor sap had to run. He's like, no, it's it's way way too different. It's not the same. I don't exactly know how they do it. They must have observed it from space, but they saw They are convinced now that it's not a mirror image any longer. Um. But this is it's not that surprising that they're just now kind of um figuring that out, because it wasn't until too terribly long ago that people thought the aurora was things like a giant camp fire on the other side of the ocean being reflected in the sky or um uh, you know, like the sun's rays peeking up from under the earth where it was day when it was night where you were. Um. There's been a lot of explanations, some of them goofier than others. Um, But it wasn't until I think the nineteenth century that we really figured out what was going on. And it was a dude in Norway, appropriately enough, because Norway is a good place to see the Northern Lights. Yeah. I mean they've been around obviously, since there have been people to watch them, since ancient times, people have been observing them. But like you said, when you know, when you're talking about indigenous peoples and vikings and things, they're gonna have, uh, you know, they had a more limited understanding of science, so they had all these uh, fanciful descriptions of what they might be. But um, are you talking about the first person to use the term are you talking about? No? Actually I jumped past him and he definitely deserves pop, so let's talk about him. Yeah, Pierre Pierre Gasindi or Galileo and Galileo Galilee apparently at the same around the same time, both witnessed the September twelfth, nine sixty one display, and um, both kind of you know, put it in their own words how wonderful it was. But it wasn't until I believe you were talking about eighteen physicist name Christian Birkeland in Norway. Yeah, I think it was sixteen sixty one. What did I say, Oh man, Yeah, okay, And they saw it on Yeah, they saw it on the same night, right, and they both went out and I don't think they were having a conversation and then both ran out to write it down. It seems like they simultaneously came up with this idea at the same time from seeing it on the same date. Is that is that correct? Yeah? I think they both saw the same uh fantastic display on the same night, but they both came up with the same idea to name it Aurora Borealis. Oh. Well, that I don't know. They share credit, which to me means they probably don't know right and would just feel bad giving it to one of them. Yeah, because history has riddled with that kind of thing where you know, everybody says, oh no, it was really Alexander Graham Bell and Elijah Gray. There's definitely no winner in that. Or maybe one of them said I say, Aurora, you say, and he went Borealis and they had got a little chant going. It was like a Beastie Boys concert. Yeah, exactly, so they it was that the what was the Norwegian scientists who Kidistian Berkeland. So they were already called the Northern Lights from at least the Renaissance on um or I guess that would be pre Renaissance, didn't Galileo helped kick off the Renaissance. I think he cut the ribbon. So um, Christian Berkeland he was the one who he came up with the modern interpretation of what the auroras are. Yeah, he was pretty right too, I agree, like he just I don't know if he just pulled this one out of his hat or what, but he definitely he he decided that what the aurora auroras are aurora Apparently you put it a E on the end, and that's how you pluralize it. When um, he figured out that they have something to do with electrons in outer space interacting with the magnetosphere around Earth. And it turns out he was absolutely right. Yeah, he recreated this in a vacuum chamber successfully, but he wasn't a percent right he I think he said that, um, and we'll get to this later, but the Aurora borealis and auroras in general are have a characteristic shape, which is an oval ring. And he did not know this at the time, because he thought that these electrons were coming from the sun, which is not quite true. No, no, it's not. It's a little more complex than that. Like, his interpretation of the whole thing was pretty seemed to be correct, and you actually run into it here there. I saw it on a couple of pretty respectable sites that were basically giving the Berkeland interpretation of aurora um phenomenon. But it turns out there's an extra step in there that he didn't account for. So do you want to talk about the magnetosphere real quick? Well, I think quickly that we should shout out one more researcher. Uh. And this was nineteen sixty four. There was a grad student in Japan name Uh, Well you want to you always take our Japanese you want to do that one? Uh? Shoon Ichi Aka Sofu, very nice, thank you. Uh. And he actually in nineteen sixty four saw these photos, examined them, examined them closely, and notice that they were rings. And I believe that he was the first one to say, hey, these things are oval. I think he actually predicted them that they would be oval mathematically without even observing him. And then then yeah, then once we started going into space and looking at from satellites. They said, yep, aka Sofu was right through math dude. He was like, nope, it'll be a ring. And it turns out he's right and the the the So what you're seeing with the northern lights and the southern lights, um are actually connections toward ovals that go around the North pole and the South pole. And what what it is again, it's it's particles, highly charged particles from out of space interacting with the magnetosphere. Yeah. So so you're ready to talk about the magnetosphere. So the this is kind of astounding to me. We're not entirely certain why the Earth has a magnetic field from what I can tell. Did you know that? Yeah, I mean they have their idea, but um, they're not positive right. That astounds me. Um Supposedly from the rotation of molten iron in the outer core inside the Earth, UM that generates this electrical field that surrounds the Earth, the magnetosphere. That's the current hypothesis. It's probably right, but the fact that we don't know exactly what creates the magnetosphere around the Earth is just weird to me. Yeah, I'm with you there, So what with this whatever is causing it. We know that there's a magnetic shield basically around Earth. That's that is probably caused by that that iron rotating inside the Earth. And this magnetic shield has helped preserve Earth, like we would not be here if the magnetosphere wasn't there. The atmosphere probably wouldn't be around Earth if the magnetosphere wasn't there. It protects us from bursts of radiation of highly charged um ions and and particles that are blasted out from the Sun and are just traveling throughout the Solar System from other stars and we're bombarded. Earth is bombarded by the stuff constantly, and Um, the magnetosphere acts to actually um deflect most of it, a lot of it. Yeah, we need the magnetosphere. So we've got this thing surrounding us and and it's great. It keeps us alive. But it also creates the basis for um for Aurora aurora. Yes, all right, so how this happens, um, It sounds kind of complicated, but it's really not. When you look at it. UM, Like, like you said, there's the Sun is like this big ball of gas. It constantly spits out and burps out all kinds of things in the form of energy and um radiation and what's called the solar wind, solar flares, coronal mass ejections. Uh. And we talked about all of this in various episodes, but notably our terrible episode on the Sun, our legendary episode. Anything that has anything remotely to do with the Sun is usually a poor episode for us. Uh. And, like you said, most of the time these things get deflected, but sometimes some of the stuff gets trapped in the magnetosphere, right, well, or so this stuff that's being spit out from the Sun, it's it's a lot of it's plasma, right, which is the fourth state of matter. And that's like highly charged particles that hit the magnetosphere. And when they hit the magnetosphere, they basically transfer their current to the magnetosphere. They produced an electrical charge in it. That's right, And all kinds of fun stuff happens once that happens. And so what, well, this is where the Berkland interpretation basically kind of starts to diver It's right. So Berkland's idea was those particles travel through the magnets for down the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field and um. They directly create the um the aurora. Yeah, Like if you looked at if you could see the magnetic field around the Earth, it would have a big, long whiskey tail sort of like it would sort of look like a comet surrounding the Earth and these magnetic lines that it travels. Once it hits those field lines, it goes along that that path on the northern and southern poles, right, so down that tail and if you if you so, the reason that it has that tail. On the one side, it's squished and the the it's it goes it's about six to eight earth radii outside of the Earth, in between the Earth and the Sun, but it's being pressed up against the Earth, threats being squished on the sun side. On the night side, that tail is being formed, and apparently that's extraordinarily long. It goes well well past the Moon, something like up to a thousand earth radii past the Earth on the other side. Right, But if there wasn't solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere just formed, I think it's natural shape and there was no pressure from the solar wind on it. What you would see if you were looking at it from outer space is so the Earth is a dipole magnet You've got the positive in the negative one on each pole. Right, it would look like the Earth's magnetosphere would look like an eight on its side to where the top of the eight was coming out the left side of the Earth and the bottom of the eighth would be coming off of the right side. There and where they came together would be Earth's magnetic poles. And where those the magnetosphere comes in contact with the Earth at the poles are what it called the polar cusps. And apparently this is basically a direct pipeline, a funnel for particles to go right toward the polls. And that's why particles tend to accumulate, or the northern lights tend to um accumulate and be seen every night at these poles in rings, because they're being funneled there by the magnetosphere. Yeah, it's like when uh in the original Star Wars and New Hope when Luke fires at the end toward the Death Star and it and he gets sucked in that little hole that's like the polar cusp of the Death Star. That is a great analogy. So let's take a break, shall we. I'm hanging on here by my fingernails, and I need to regain myself. I think they call this a cliffhanger. All right, so we're back to describe the second part of how this works. Yes, and more. Uh So, when this charge it's cutting across this magnetic field, following those lines toward the it's actually called the magnet magneto tail. I can't believe they actually named it that. It's great. Uh And like you said from the beginning, it generates this electric current and as it goes it generates more and more currents, just sort of building up current until it hits the ionosphere. Right, So here's this really important step, right, And berklen knew this. He he guessed this, but he we'll we'll explain what you got wrong after we explain what's right. How about that? So, when um, these particles charge the magnetosphere, there's particles that are already trapped in the the magnetosphere already, right, And when solar winds and plasma and these highly charged particles hit the magnetosphere and electrify it, it kind of shakes loose these trapped particles, right. Yeah, Well, these trapped particles are ions, meaning they have either an extra electron or they're missing an electron, but either way they're not neutral. They have a charge positive or negative charge. And those things go careening through the magnetosphere toward Earth, down through the atmosphere, and when they hit the atmosphere, they start interacting with some of the atoms and molecules, specifically oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere. And when they do, baby, they release photons. That's right, And that that outer region, the ionospheres where most of that oxygen and nitrogen is and uh, you're right. They get together and have a little bit of a party. They exchange some energy with one another, uh, get to know one another a little bit. And that absorption of energy by the oxygen and nitrogen ions it gets those electrons, it gets their electrons excite it, right, So they the um oxygen and nitrogen they have like uh, they have electrons orbiting them, right, But they're just in this low level orbit. It's like a whatever kind of energy, right, it's a it's a party that hasn't started yet. It is this is kind of hanging out. Maybe the pizza hasn't arrived yet. Um, that kind of thing. So the when the when the ions arrived though, they're bringing the pizza, and then some they're bringing the northern lights with them, right, Um, and they they get the party started, those electrons in the lower orbit suddenly move up to a larger orbit further out. And when that happens, energy has been gained. Right. Yeah, that's called a high energy orbital Okay, So when that happens, it's basically destined to come back to its lower energy orbit. Right. The party has got to end at some point because to get tired, they need to go home. The Sun's coming up, that kind of thing. So either by it changes in the vacuum state or because of the application of an external electrical field that orbit, that electron goes back to its original lower orbit. When it does, since it's gained energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Um, that has to go somewhere, And it goes somewhere by the production or the emission I should say, of a photon, a packet of light. So light is emitted when that electron goes back down to its lower or after the party's over, that's right. And because oxygen ions radiate red and yellow light, nitrogen ions radiate red, blue, and violet light. Depending on where you are, This can happen at different UM I guess different altitudes. UH blue and violet UM generally less than seventy two miles kilometers, green is going to be sight milesight kilometers, and then redh more than a hundred eight miles, which is about a hundred and eighty kilometers, So that accounts for the different colors. If you look up or if you've ever been lucky enough to see one of the auroras um, either the Australias or Borealis, you're gonna see My favorite is the green, but you're gonna see all kinds of um, blue, green, violet, and red lights. Well, and apparently the green just confounded scientists because they're like, wait, so, yeah, oxygen radiates red and yellow light. That's that's great. Nitrogen is is red, blue and violet. Got that, But where is this green coming from? They couldn't link at any particular atom or molecule, and then they realized that it has to do with the rarefied air in the upper upper atmosphere, that the the conditions found up there are not going to be found anywhere else on Earth. UM and that it's actually it is oxygen atoms and oxygen molecules producing the green. You just wouldn't see it anywhere else but specifically up in the upper atmosphere. Yeah, well it's oxygen and nitrogen doesn't have something to do with it. I saw it was just oxygen emitting the green, Okay, but the I mean, yes, nitrogen produces some of the other colors. Yeah. So, uh, if you're watching these, if you're one of the people, they very in brightness, you know they can right now. And actually for a while now, we've been in a pretty low uh what's it called the solar cycle. Yeah, we've been in a kind of a bummer of a solar cycle for a while now, and these auroras haven't been nearly as spectacular as they have been in years past because of that. I think they peaked in two thousand and twelve, but even that that was a solar maximum that when it peaked and it started to decline. So solar cycle happens every eleven years, and we're starting up our twenty third one now. Um, but this past one, the twenty second one, was like the lowest in a century. It was the weakest one in a cential. Yeah, the weakest maximum even but even still weren't there. Couldn't you see northern lights once in a while, like fairly far a few years back. I don't remember. I stily here. You can see it in or that at times, you can see them in the southern United States, but I don't remember seeing them ever. I don't either, And supposedly there was a date in either or nine nine where they were visible from Cuba that they were that far south. That might be as far south as has ever been recorded. Actually, but normally you can see them the closer to the poles you are, so specifically, uh, in the North Pole or South Pole, the Arctic or Antarctica, you can see them basically every night. Um, there are specific conditions to where they're more brilliant than others. Right, So, um, if you're looking for what did you say, if people watch them, they um they put them into categories one through four. Yeah. I didn't say that yet, but uh yeah zero up through four from barely can see it. Two Holy cow, that's amazing, right, So if you're looking for the Holy Cow, that's amazing. Four. Um, you would go looking on a moonless night where there's no clouds where it's super super cold, and maybe October or February or March. Yeah, I saw it. Also, Um, winter is the best time to see him, winter in the north and winter in the south. Oh yeah, yeah, alright, well I'll buy that. Yeah. I thought that was weird that there's any confusion on that, because yeah, there's like whole tourist industries that are have grown up around us. Well maybe that's how they're trying to get you. Like it's December, but you should still come. It's great, all right, you just come back in December too. Uh So, northern Norway, UM Alaska. Obviously you're gonna get some pretty good stuff. Um southern Alaska. Like you said, as things as you go south, it's going to diminish a little bit. But I would imagine southern Alaska you're still getting a pretty good show, right, don't you think. Yep, Sometimes you could see him and I think this will probably be on par with southern Alaska. Just at the worst feeling, I'm going to get a bunch of email geography. But you can sometimes see them in Scotland even Okay, Um, I believe that maybe the northern UK you could conceivably see them once in a while. But I got the impression that Scotland is more regular than say, over here in the northern United States. Yeah, I think it says here Scotland in the UK maybe one to ten times a month, and then the US and Canada near the border maybe just a couple to three or four times a year. Right, Okay, I've never seen him of you know, and it says once or twice a century. You might seem in the southern United States. So if it happened in the late eighties, we missed our shot, my friend, which is weird because I would have been in Toledo. Maybe I was sleeping. It just seems like something that my mom would have woken me up for. Yeah, I mean, I don't it doesn't stand out to me. Is like science teachers would have probably said something. But remember remember Haley's comment. When that came through, everybody was talking about Yeah, I guess maybe it could have caught everybody by surprise. I don't know about that. I think this is pretty predictable, right, I don't know that that's true. What that is predictable? Yeah, well, I think the the conditions, they know the conditions where they will be the best. But maybe, like the weather, you can't predict those conditions, right Suppose yeah I saw somewhere something like, um, they can predict them within a few hours. Oh well yeah, it's not enough time to get to Norway. No it's not from Georgia. So so the scale is zero to four it like we were saying. And the people that enthusiasts that watch these they actually can help contribute to science because you know, there's not always someone like you said, if it's just a few hours, notice, there's not always a scientist there when you need them. Um. So these enthusiasts they record things, they record data, uh, to turn in like the time and the date, the colors, the latitude, and some might even make a little sketch of what they're seeing. Uh. And that really goes a long way to helping the scientists out and helping them understand, um, what our magnetic field is doing right now. And the scientists are like, we didn't ask for us. Get really appreciate the extra touch. You know, maybe watercolors nice, Maybe you put like a mint in the envelope to when you veil it off, it would be nice. Why not scientists love mints? Um apparently also, Chuck, something that was in this article is that you can there are aurora on other I'm just gonna say aurora's there are auroras on other UM planets too. Yeah, you know, I kind of wondered about that before I started researching, because, like you know, solar flares and winds don't just go towards Earth, and other planets have magnetic fields, so trurely this happens elsewhere, and it does. They've seen it on Jupiter Saturn. Uh yeah, Jupiter and Saturn, all right, but surely I mean, like if it's if The point is, if you have a magnetic field around the planet and an atmosphere around the planet that has ionic gases, and and anytime there's a solar flare that can reach it and UM create an electrical current in that magnetosphere, then you have all the conditions right for an aurora. I guess the colors will be different though, on Jupiter and Saturn, right, because it's different. That'd be awesome to see hydrogen and helium in their case. So I'm not sure that's a Chartrusse and brown brown aurora maybe not the best. So you want to take another break and then uh finish up. Yes, I have to have to wet down again. Okay, so chuck, um, we didn't say a lot of the uh, the the auroras that you see, um, they have they formed basically different shapes, like it can come in different well, different shapes around the poles. You've got the ovals, the rings, but there's other shapes they can take two and some of the more famous ones look like ribbons or curtains that kind of go basically from one horizon all the way to the other overhead. Uh and they going kind of this wavy river pattern. But then the lights stands upward into the atmosphere that it's got to be something to see, you know. Yeah, I mean, after researching this, I really like have a hankering to go see this in person one day, so I did too, and I still do. But I came across an article in The Independent and it was written by one of the Independence travel writers and they said that going to see the Northern Lights was the most disappointing travel experience they have ever had in their entire life. And she said that part of it is what had to do with the tour they went on. She said it sucked it was a terrible tour Ronnie worst tour guide ever in the Yelp review. Well, supposedly it was so this it was a um they called them a northern lights chase. But the chase consisted of sitting in their hosts living room and then every once a while someone would go to the window to see if the northern lights were out or not, and then they'd sit back down. Um, that was the chase. She said that there are that's a dumb thing to call it. Well, it's not like it's just over there. We just need to get a fast enough truck. And apparently there are those like the was kind of operations, and that's what she thought she was getting. So she was had and on the one hand, but um, she said, the actual northern lights that she saw were kind of grayish and looked a lot like keim or a contrail and or maybe even cigarettes smoke in the sky, kind of fog at night. Um. And then Ronie was just smoking. And then it wasn't. It wasn't until she saw the picture that the host took of them with, which requires like a long exposure, like ten to fourteen seconds. That's when the colors and all the amazing nous comes out. So everything you've seen in the pictures is from the long exposure, and apparently in person it's very rare that you see something that looks like the pictures. It looks very much different in real life apparently, and that disappointing. That's a huge bummer. But you just saved me like ten grand, so that that is really disappointing. That's a long exposure effect. Yes. For as far as the Independent writer um says that she said when she saw the picture, she was like, Oh, that's yeah, it's a it's a photo that we're seeing. She said, in real life they don't look like that. So the article you can read it yourself. Why seeing the Northern Lights was the most disappointing travel experience of my life, it was in the Independent. I'm gonna change my whisch then I don't want to pay to go on some dumb chase. I just want to happen upon them on a regular trip somewhere there you go. Then I'm already happy with Yeah, like Icelanders And actually she she makes the same exact point. She said, the rest of the trip was awesome. She said the the I think she was in Norway, and she said that the the just everything else about it was one of the best trips she's ever been on. It was the Northern Lights themselves that specifically stunk. And if you make that, you know, part of your tour, but not the whole reason you're going, you probably wouldn't be discipution to to visit the far north of Norway. Well, because I'm sure that's great on its own, you know, That's what she was saying. Yeah, I mean, gosh, I'm scrolling through the pictures now, it's amazing. That's uh. I thought that's what it looked like, right, That's what everybody thinks, apparently, but and sometimes I guess it does. But you are extraordinarily lucky if you're seeing the Northern Lights and it looks like that in person. From from what this lady is saying. Well, plus, if you go on one of those, there's nothing worse than feeling duped into and uh duped into spending a lot of money on a tour. Yeah, at some dude's house. Yeah, I'd like to see video. That would be more telling. Yeah, I can't can't just expose it like that with video, can you not? Well, I mean you can open up the exposure to get a two, get the video to look right, but it won't be just like a you know, it's not like open the exposure on uh, moving traffic at night with a photograph and you'll see like the dragging of the tail lights and stuff like that. Like it, it won't create some weird effect. I wonder if you use like a high speed filter it would do it? Or do you want low speed high speed filter? You know, obviously I'm I'm a professional photographer. Uh. Should we talk a little bit about the sound. Yeah, definitely. It makes a farting noise which is really interesting. Yea. And it kind of smells that would make it all more fun at least. Um. No, But there have long been people that um swore that it makes a sound um and not everyone because apparently and you know, someone actually found this out. It's a sound that only some people can hear sometimes. Yeah, And the conditions have to be super right for it, and there's very specific ones. And there's this one poor guy, his name is Unto kay Lane. He's finished, I belief. Um he's an acoustic acoustician, is there right? Yeah? Um from Finland who was on a camping trip, and I think two thousand and the Northern lights were just going off and going crazy, and he said he could hear like popping and crackling sounds and everyone said, well, that's because you were drunk, and he's like, no, I know for a fact I heard this. So he spent like the next fifteen years basically, um trying to capture the sounds of the Aurora borealis, and he finally was successful apparently in two thousand eleven. Yeah, and his whole deal was, UM, Well, when he was with his friends, first of all, he said, they had to be like completely still. It's not such a noise that you know, they're having a conversation, and they were like, oh, what's that like? They had to be dead silent, They had to not move in order to hear it. And then even within his group some people couldn't hear it at all because it just very low intensity. Right. But he's, like you said, been chasing that buzz ever since. And um, finally is he figured out I think he figured out the conditions first, right or did he do that? Did he back it in afterward? He he put two and two together. So we went out and he captured it one night, right the sounds, and then he went and looked up the UM like I guess the weather services report for that local area, and he figured out that what what he had been sitting under is called a thermal inversion layer where UM kind of warm at least compared to the air beneath it on the ground. UM warm air is kind of trapping the cold there below it, and as long as the conditions are super still, uh, and it's very cold, they're gonna stay separate, right, Yeah, it's gotta be clear, calm and cold, right, So would just be just an irregular aurora, Like you have to have a sub set of conditions to get this crackle noise exactly right. So UM, in the warm air, uh, the warm air layer, a lot of UM electrons are become charged and the cold are below it an opposite charge built, right, So you have this this um electrical charge just waiting to go off and turn into a current. And apparently it's the aurora above it that that causes the charge to actually turn into a current. Yeah, he was pretty surprised at first because he didn't just point a microphone. He had this array so he could triangulate exactly where the sound was coming from, and it was just two thirty ft above him was the sound and he was I don't know what the finished expression for holy crap is it's a oivey. I don't think so, but uh, that's what he said. And he was like, you know this is weird, this so low. Um, And that's when he came up with his theory and it does it check out fully? Or everybody said, you know, that's that's probably right. Yeah, they're like head the very least came up with definitive proof that this was um, the sound coming from it. But yeah, the fact that it was just overhead this in the thermal and vision layer explained how you could conceivably hear the Northern Lights. Amazing, Yeah, pretty amazing. You got anything else? I got nothing else. I'm just disappointed now, Yeah, for real, I'm disappointed in the Northern Lights and our episode on the Northern Lights. Uh if you yeah, man, the sun, anytime the sun comes into play, it's a curse, a pox on us. If you want to know more about the Northern Lights, go see him yourself. And if you have seen them in person and know us to be incorrect. Let us know because we would like our dreams back. Um. You can tweet to us at s SK podcast or josh um Clark. You can hang out with us on Facebook at Stuff you Should Know or Charles W. Chuck Bryant. You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at how Stuff works dot com. And as always, I started this one early which goes to show again, worst episode over, It's time for listener mail. That's right, I'm gonna call this. Uh well, it's just a nice email. Hey, guys, been a fan since two thousand and ten, when I was a freshman in college. I don't think I've ever written in though uh this entire time, have been an evangelist, but to no avail. That all change A few months ago I convinced the love of my life, Meredith, to give you guys a shot, And now she is fun too. She's an outstanding woman and mother and has courageously struck out a loan for a job offer she couldn't refuse. So now we live four hundred miles apart, and having your podcast to talk about keeps a conversation alive on day some weird feeling a bit down? Uh, I know, it's nice. In addition, I will also listen to you guys in the long car rides to visit her. There's a way to distract myself from my own excitement about getting to see her again, and it helps the time pass faster. Uh. I know it's not the first time someone's written to tell you the same thing, and I promise I would never be that listener. But I get it now, and when you find it true love, you just cannot help yourself. Sometimes this does get the coveted shout out. Tell Meredith to keep up the good work and Happy Mother's Day. Keep up the good work, guys. You were the first podcast I ever listened to and still my favorite. Sleep well tonight knowing that you are fostering love and real human connections out here in podcast land. That was a great email. That was nice. That is from Sam Martin and oh maha, he's a medical student and a bar trivia master. Thanks to us, he said, nice. Well, thanks a lot, Sam, Yes, Sam, and Mereth, thanks a lot Meredith for giving us a shot. We're glad it paid off. It reminds me of me and youm do long distance for a while. It can really really suck. Remember that you guys got through that like a champ, though we did like two chaps. Yeah, we've petted each other on the backs. If you want to get in touch with us, you already know how because I said it prematurely. Uh. And in the meantime you can hang out with us. Uh. It's stuff you should know. Dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works? Dot com

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there. So this is Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Uh, we want to give before we get started, a big congratulations to our newest colleagues, Emily and Bridget with the official relaunch of stuff Mom never told you, Yeah, Chuck. They just debuted last week, I believe, and they come out Wednesdays and Fridays. Huh yeah, so Monday, Tuesday, well, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the four of us have you covered? Yeah, it's true. Do we have any shows that come out on Monday? We do? All right, Well, Jerry's nodding, so that means we've got you covered every day of the week. Let's just say that. Nice. That's the How Stuff Works way. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, just congratulations to them. That's awesome. I know that they've been running classic episodes while they were down and getting restarted, and uh it's no small thing to come in and take a show over. But they're doing an awesome job and are both uh great broadcasters. And you know, I'm I'm in support of them. Yeah, that's my official position. I know that sounded weirdly political. Yeah, good luck and best twishes to Bridget and Emily. So you guys go check it out Wednesdays and Fridays anywhere you get podcasts. You can get stuff Mom never told you. Yes, and apologize. I apologize for my voice. Oh yeah, what's up with your voice? Man? I've just had this upper respiratory thing that won't go away, that stinks, and so unless I'm constantly wetting my throat, it gets weirdly deep and cracky. So are you paying a lot more than usual? Well, I'm drinking a lot of water. I'm peeing a lot, but I would literally have to drink between every sentence to keep it silky smooth. Oh do you want to record today? No, I'm fine. I'm not in pain, but I just don't want anyone's ears to be in pain. Have you heard of um? Oh? Man, now that I say it, I realized I don't know the name of the brand. But you know those like cough drops that are actually like candy, but they market them as cough drops, the cherry flavored ones. M No, I mean like they're literal candy. Um no, but it's basically the most delicious jolly rancher you've ever had. It lacks the sour, it's all sweet. So it's green apple. No, they're red. I can't remember what they're called. People are screaming at their um. Yeah, well their phones, their tablets, their computers. Right now, settled down, everybody, Yes, we chuck and I agree with you. This is maybe the worst intro we've ever done. And Jerry does too. So let's get to it, shall we. So we're talking aurora's today. Yeah, and generally we're talking about the two most famous auroras. Uh And I say too, because I don't even want to give I don't want to short change the Aurora Australis. No, it definitely does get short changed, though totally. Did you Did you come upon why? I came upon the explanation a couple of times? Oh about why? Yeah? Uh I didn't. But I'm gonna have a guess. Okay, let's have it. Is it not quite as magnificent? Nope? Are there not as many people there? Yes? There you go, There are fewer. There's there's less land around the South Pole as there is around the North Pole. Um, I should say the magnetic South and North pole. Um. So there's fewer eyes to see it, so the grandeur of it is is um less obvious too as many people. But yeah, that's that's why the Northern Lights get all the all the top billing. Plus, no one ever named a strain of weed after the Aurora Australis out about that too. Southern Lights, what is that? I bet you there's one. There's a poison. There a like a head shop in Atlanta called Southern Lights. I think it's a bookstore. Oh got it? Wink wink. Oh yeah, but where you can where you can buy rush and spice books. Well, I I don't understand. I'm just kidding. Let's see. Is that like a code for something? Well, I thought you were giving me the code, Chuck. I think it's a real bookstore, gardening books. This is the most confused I've ever been on this show. Like we're on a cell phone and have to keep things, you know, straight up? All right, all right, let's get back to it. I don't want to confuse you so Auroras, because I want to make sure that you is uh comes through Um the the there are two and Chuck apparently until very re cerently. It was assumed because people couldn't see him at the same time, but it was assumed that there the northern lights that you were seeing the Aurora borealis. Um, if you could simultaneously see the Aurora Australias, you would be seeing a mirror image of one another. And they recently found out that that's absolutely not true at all. They finally got someone down there to look some some poor sap had to run. He's like, no, it's it's way way too different. It's not the same. I don't exactly know how they do it. They must have observed it from space, but they saw They are convinced now that it's not a mirror image any longer. Um. But this is it's not that surprising that they're just now kind of um figuring that out, because it wasn't until too terribly long ago that people thought the aurora was things like a giant camp fire on the other side of the ocean being reflected in the sky or um uh, you know, like the sun's rays peeking up from under the earth where it was day when it was night where you were. Um. There's been a lot of explanations, some of them goofier than others. Um, But it wasn't until I think the nineteenth century that we really figured out what was going on. And it was a dude in Norway, appropriately enough, because Norway is a good place to see the Northern Lights. Yeah. I mean they've been around obviously, since there have been people to watch them, since ancient times, people have been observing them. But like you said, when you know, when you're talking about indigenous peoples and vikings and things, they're gonna have, uh, you know, they had a more limited understanding of science, so they had all these uh, fanciful descriptions of what they might be. But um, are you talking about the first person to use the term are you talking about? No? Actually I jumped past him and he definitely deserves pop, so let's talk about him. Yeah, Pierre Pierre Gasindi or Galileo and Galileo Galilee apparently at the same around the same time, both witnessed the September twelfth, nine sixty one display, and um, both kind of you know, put it in their own words how wonderful it was. But it wasn't until I believe you were talking about eighteen physicist name Christian Birkeland in Norway. Yeah, I think it was sixteen sixty one. What did I say, Oh man, Yeah, okay, And they saw it on Yeah, they saw it on the same night, right, and they both went out and I don't think they were having a conversation and then both ran out to write it down. It seems like they simultaneously came up with this idea at the same time from seeing it on the same date. Is that is that correct? Yeah? I think they both saw the same uh fantastic display on the same night, but they both came up with the same idea to name it Aurora Borealis. Oh. Well, that I don't know. They share credit, which to me means they probably don't know right and would just feel bad giving it to one of them. Yeah, because history has riddled with that kind of thing where you know, everybody says, oh no, it was really Alexander Graham Bell and Elijah Gray. There's definitely no winner in that. Or maybe one of them said I say, Aurora, you say, and he went Borealis and they had got a little chant going. It was like a Beastie Boys concert. Yeah, exactly, so they it was that the what was the Norwegian scientists who Kidistian Berkeland. So they were already called the Northern Lights from at least the Renaissance on um or I guess that would be pre Renaissance, didn't Galileo helped kick off the Renaissance. I think he cut the ribbon. So um, Christian Berkeland he was the one who he came up with the modern interpretation of what the auroras are. Yeah, he was pretty right too, I agree, like he just I don't know if he just pulled this one out of his hat or what, but he definitely he he decided that what the aurora auroras are aurora Apparently you put it a E on the end, and that's how you pluralize it. When um, he figured out that they have something to do with electrons in outer space interacting with the magnetosphere around Earth. And it turns out he was absolutely right. Yeah, he recreated this in a vacuum chamber successfully, but he wasn't a percent right he I think he said that, um, and we'll get to this later, but the Aurora borealis and auroras in general are have a characteristic shape, which is an oval ring. And he did not know this at the time, because he thought that these electrons were coming from the sun, which is not quite true. No, no, it's not. It's a little more complex than that. Like, his interpretation of the whole thing was pretty seemed to be correct, and you actually run into it here there. I saw it on a couple of pretty respectable sites that were basically giving the Berkeland interpretation of aurora um phenomenon. But it turns out there's an extra step in there that he didn't account for. So do you want to talk about the magnetosphere real quick? Well, I think quickly that we should shout out one more researcher. Uh. And this was nineteen sixty four. There was a grad student in Japan name Uh, Well you want to you always take our Japanese you want to do that one? Uh? Shoon Ichi Aka Sofu, very nice, thank you. Uh. And he actually in nineteen sixty four saw these photos, examined them, examined them closely, and notice that they were rings. And I believe that he was the first one to say, hey, these things are oval. I think he actually predicted them that they would be oval mathematically without even observing him. And then then yeah, then once we started going into space and looking at from satellites. They said, yep, aka Sofu was right through math dude. He was like, nope, it'll be a ring. And it turns out he's right and the the the So what you're seeing with the northern lights and the southern lights, um are actually connections toward ovals that go around the North pole and the South pole. And what what it is again, it's it's particles, highly charged particles from out of space interacting with the magnetosphere. Yeah. So so you're ready to talk about the magnetosphere. So the this is kind of astounding to me. We're not entirely certain why the Earth has a magnetic field from what I can tell. Did you know that? Yeah, I mean they have their idea, but um, they're not positive right. That astounds me. Um Supposedly from the rotation of molten iron in the outer core inside the Earth, UM that generates this electrical field that surrounds the Earth, the magnetosphere. That's the current hypothesis. It's probably right, but the fact that we don't know exactly what creates the magnetosphere around the Earth is just weird to me. Yeah, I'm with you there, So what with this whatever is causing it. We know that there's a magnetic shield basically around Earth. That's that is probably caused by that that iron rotating inside the Earth. And this magnetic shield has helped preserve Earth, like we would not be here if the magnetosphere wasn't there. The atmosphere probably wouldn't be around Earth if the magnetosphere wasn't there. It protects us from bursts of radiation of highly charged um ions and and particles that are blasted out from the Sun and are just traveling throughout the Solar System from other stars and we're bombarded. Earth is bombarded by the stuff constantly, and Um, the magnetosphere acts to actually um deflect most of it, a lot of it. Yeah, we need the magnetosphere. So we've got this thing surrounding us and and it's great. It keeps us alive. But it also creates the basis for um for Aurora aurora. Yes, all right, so how this happens, um, It sounds kind of complicated, but it's really not. When you look at it. UM, Like, like you said, there's the Sun is like this big ball of gas. It constantly spits out and burps out all kinds of things in the form of energy and um radiation and what's called the solar wind, solar flares, coronal mass ejections. Uh. And we talked about all of this in various episodes, but notably our terrible episode on the Sun, our legendary episode. Anything that has anything remotely to do with the Sun is usually a poor episode for us. Uh. And, like you said, most of the time these things get deflected, but sometimes some of the stuff gets trapped in the magnetosphere, right, well, or so this stuff that's being spit out from the Sun, it's it's a lot of it's plasma, right, which is the fourth state of matter. And that's like highly charged particles that hit the magnetosphere. And when they hit the magnetosphere, they basically transfer their current to the magnetosphere. They produced an electrical charge in it. That's right, And all kinds of fun stuff happens once that happens. And so what, well, this is where the Berkland interpretation basically kind of starts to diver It's right. So Berkland's idea was those particles travel through the magnets for down the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field and um. They directly create the um the aurora. Yeah, Like if you looked at if you could see the magnetic field around the Earth, it would have a big, long whiskey tail sort of like it would sort of look like a comet surrounding the Earth and these magnetic lines that it travels. Once it hits those field lines, it goes along that that path on the northern and southern poles, right, so down that tail and if you if you so, the reason that it has that tail. On the one side, it's squished and the the it's it goes it's about six to eight earth radii outside of the Earth, in between the Earth and the Sun, but it's being pressed up against the Earth, threats being squished on the sun side. On the night side, that tail is being formed, and apparently that's extraordinarily long. It goes well well past the Moon, something like up to a thousand earth radii past the Earth on the other side. Right, But if there wasn't solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere just formed, I think it's natural shape and there was no pressure from the solar wind on it. What you would see if you were looking at it from outer space is so the Earth is a dipole magnet You've got the positive in the negative one on each pole. Right, it would look like the Earth's magnetosphere would look like an eight on its side to where the top of the eight was coming out the left side of the Earth and the bottom of the eighth would be coming off of the right side. There and where they came together would be Earth's magnetic poles. And where those the magnetosphere comes in contact with the Earth at the poles are what it called the polar cusps. And apparently this is basically a direct pipeline, a funnel for particles to go right toward the polls. And that's why particles tend to accumulate, or the northern lights tend to um accumulate and be seen every night at these poles in rings, because they're being funneled there by the magnetosphere. Yeah, it's like when uh in the original Star Wars and New Hope when Luke fires at the end toward the Death Star and it and he gets sucked in that little hole that's like the polar cusp of the Death Star. That is a great analogy. So let's take a break, shall we. I'm hanging on here by my fingernails, and I need to regain myself. I think they call this a cliffhanger. All right, so we're back to describe the second part of how this works. Yes, and more. Uh So, when this charge it's cutting across this magnetic field, following those lines toward the it's actually called the magnet magneto tail. I can't believe they actually named it that. It's great. Uh And like you said from the beginning, it generates this electric current and as it goes it generates more and more currents, just sort of building up current until it hits the ionosphere. Right, So here's this really important step, right, And berklen knew this. He he guessed this, but he we'll we'll explain what you got wrong after we explain what's right. How about that? So, when um, these particles charge the magnetosphere, there's particles that are already trapped in the the magnetosphere already, right, And when solar winds and plasma and these highly charged particles hit the magnetosphere and electrify it, it kind of shakes loose these trapped particles, right. Yeah, Well, these trapped particles are ions, meaning they have either an extra electron or they're missing an electron, but either way they're not neutral. They have a charge positive or negative charge. And those things go careening through the magnetosphere toward Earth, down through the atmosphere, and when they hit the atmosphere, they start interacting with some of the atoms and molecules, specifically oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere. And when they do, baby, they release photons. That's right, And that that outer region, the ionospheres where most of that oxygen and nitrogen is and uh, you're right. They get together and have a little bit of a party. They exchange some energy with one another, uh, get to know one another a little bit. And that absorption of energy by the oxygen and nitrogen ions it gets those electrons, it gets their electrons excite it, right, So they the um oxygen and nitrogen they have like uh, they have electrons orbiting them, right, But they're just in this low level orbit. It's like a whatever kind of energy, right, it's a it's a party that hasn't started yet. It is this is kind of hanging out. Maybe the pizza hasn't arrived yet. Um, that kind of thing. So the when the when the ions arrived though, they're bringing the pizza, and then some they're bringing the northern lights with them, right, Um, and they they get the party started, those electrons in the lower orbit suddenly move up to a larger orbit further out. And when that happens, energy has been gained. Right. Yeah, that's called a high energy orbital Okay, So when that happens, it's basically destined to come back to its lower energy orbit. Right. The party has got to end at some point because to get tired, they need to go home. The Sun's coming up, that kind of thing. So either by it changes in the vacuum state or because of the application of an external electrical field that orbit, that electron goes back to its original lower orbit. When it does, since it's gained energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Um, that has to go somewhere, And it goes somewhere by the production or the emission I should say, of a photon, a packet of light. So light is emitted when that electron goes back down to its lower or after the party's over, that's right. And because oxygen ions radiate red and yellow light, nitrogen ions radiate red, blue, and violet light. Depending on where you are, This can happen at different UM I guess different altitudes. UH blue and violet UM generally less than seventy two miles kilometers, green is going to be sight milesight kilometers, and then redh more than a hundred eight miles, which is about a hundred and eighty kilometers, So that accounts for the different colors. If you look up or if you've ever been lucky enough to see one of the auroras um, either the Australias or Borealis, you're gonna see My favorite is the green, but you're gonna see all kinds of um, blue, green, violet, and red lights. Well, and apparently the green just confounded scientists because they're like, wait, so, yeah, oxygen radiates red and yellow light. That's that's great. Nitrogen is is red, blue and violet. Got that, But where is this green coming from? They couldn't link at any particular atom or molecule, and then they realized that it has to do with the rarefied air in the upper upper atmosphere, that the the conditions found up there are not going to be found anywhere else on Earth. UM and that it's actually it is oxygen atoms and oxygen molecules producing the green. You just wouldn't see it anywhere else but specifically up in the upper atmosphere. Yeah, well it's oxygen and nitrogen doesn't have something to do with it. I saw it was just oxygen emitting the green, Okay, but the I mean, yes, nitrogen produces some of the other colors. Yeah. So, uh, if you're watching these, if you're one of the people, they very in brightness, you know they can right now. And actually for a while now, we've been in a pretty low uh what's it called the solar cycle. Yeah, we've been in a kind of a bummer of a solar cycle for a while now, and these auroras haven't been nearly as spectacular as they have been in years past because of that. I think they peaked in two thousand and twelve, but even that that was a solar maximum that when it peaked and it started to decline. So solar cycle happens every eleven years, and we're starting up our twenty third one now. Um, but this past one, the twenty second one, was like the lowest in a century. It was the weakest one in a cential. Yeah, the weakest maximum even but even still weren't there. Couldn't you see northern lights once in a while, like fairly far a few years back. I don't remember. I stily here. You can see it in or that at times, you can see them in the southern United States, but I don't remember seeing them ever. I don't either, And supposedly there was a date in either or nine nine where they were visible from Cuba that they were that far south. That might be as far south as has ever been recorded. Actually, but normally you can see them the closer to the poles you are, so specifically, uh, in the North Pole or South Pole, the Arctic or Antarctica, you can see them basically every night. Um, there are specific conditions to where they're more brilliant than others. Right, So, um, if you're looking for what did you say, if people watch them, they um they put them into categories one through four. Yeah. I didn't say that yet, but uh yeah zero up through four from barely can see it. Two Holy cow, that's amazing, right, So if you're looking for the Holy Cow, that's amazing. Four. Um, you would go looking on a moonless night where there's no clouds where it's super super cold, and maybe October or February or March. Yeah, I saw it. Also, Um, winter is the best time to see him, winter in the north and winter in the south. Oh yeah, yeah, alright, well I'll buy that. Yeah. I thought that was weird that there's any confusion on that, because yeah, there's like whole tourist industries that are have grown up around us. Well maybe that's how they're trying to get you. Like it's December, but you should still come. It's great, all right, you just come back in December too. Uh So, northern Norway, UM Alaska. Obviously you're gonna get some pretty good stuff. Um southern Alaska. Like you said, as things as you go south, it's going to diminish a little bit. But I would imagine southern Alaska you're still getting a pretty good show, right, don't you think. Yep, Sometimes you could see him and I think this will probably be on par with southern Alaska. Just at the worst feeling, I'm going to get a bunch of email geography. But you can sometimes see them in Scotland even Okay, Um, I believe that maybe the northern UK you could conceivably see them once in a while. But I got the impression that Scotland is more regular than say, over here in the northern United States. Yeah, I think it says here Scotland in the UK maybe one to ten times a month, and then the US and Canada near the border maybe just a couple to three or four times a year. Right, Okay, I've never seen him of you know, and it says once or twice a century. You might seem in the southern United States. So if it happened in the late eighties, we missed our shot, my friend, which is weird because I would have been in Toledo. Maybe I was sleeping. It just seems like something that my mom would have woken me up for. Yeah, I mean, I don't it doesn't stand out to me. Is like science teachers would have probably said something. But remember remember Haley's comment. When that came through, everybody was talking about Yeah, I guess maybe it could have caught everybody by surprise. I don't know about that. I think this is pretty predictable, right, I don't know that that's true. What that is predictable? Yeah, well, I think the the conditions, they know the conditions where they will be the best. But maybe, like the weather, you can't predict those conditions, right Suppose yeah I saw somewhere something like, um, they can predict them within a few hours. Oh well yeah, it's not enough time to get to Norway. No it's not from Georgia. So so the scale is zero to four it like we were saying. And the people that enthusiasts that watch these they actually can help contribute to science because you know, there's not always someone like you said, if it's just a few hours, notice, there's not always a scientist there when you need them. Um. So these enthusiasts they record things, they record data, uh, to turn in like the time and the date, the colors, the latitude, and some might even make a little sketch of what they're seeing. Uh. And that really goes a long way to helping the scientists out and helping them understand, um, what our magnetic field is doing right now. And the scientists are like, we didn't ask for us. Get really appreciate the extra touch. You know, maybe watercolors nice, Maybe you put like a mint in the envelope to when you veil it off, it would be nice. Why not scientists love mints? Um apparently also, Chuck, something that was in this article is that you can there are aurora on other I'm just gonna say aurora's there are auroras on other UM planets too. Yeah, you know, I kind of wondered about that before I started researching, because, like you know, solar flares and winds don't just go towards Earth, and other planets have magnetic fields, so trurely this happens elsewhere, and it does. They've seen it on Jupiter Saturn. Uh yeah, Jupiter and Saturn, all right, but surely I mean, like if it's if The point is, if you have a magnetic field around the planet and an atmosphere around the planet that has ionic gases, and and anytime there's a solar flare that can reach it and UM create an electrical current in that magnetosphere, then you have all the conditions right for an aurora. I guess the colors will be different though, on Jupiter and Saturn, right, because it's different. That'd be awesome to see hydrogen and helium in their case. So I'm not sure that's a Chartrusse and brown brown aurora maybe not the best. So you want to take another break and then uh finish up. Yes, I have to have to wet down again. Okay, so chuck, um, we didn't say a lot of the uh, the the auroras that you see, um, they have they formed basically different shapes, like it can come in different well, different shapes around the poles. You've got the ovals, the rings, but there's other shapes they can take two and some of the more famous ones look like ribbons or curtains that kind of go basically from one horizon all the way to the other overhead. Uh and they going kind of this wavy river pattern. But then the lights stands upward into the atmosphere that it's got to be something to see, you know. Yeah, I mean, after researching this, I really like have a hankering to go see this in person one day, so I did too, and I still do. But I came across an article in The Independent and it was written by one of the Independence travel writers and they said that going to see the Northern Lights was the most disappointing travel experience they have ever had in their entire life. And she said that part of it is what had to do with the tour they went on. She said it sucked it was a terrible tour Ronnie worst tour guide ever in the Yelp review. Well, supposedly it was so this it was a um they called them a northern lights chase. But the chase consisted of sitting in their hosts living room and then every once a while someone would go to the window to see if the northern lights were out or not, and then they'd sit back down. Um, that was the chase. She said that there are that's a dumb thing to call it. Well, it's not like it's just over there. We just need to get a fast enough truck. And apparently there are those like the was kind of operations, and that's what she thought she was getting. So she was had and on the one hand, but um, she said, the actual northern lights that she saw were kind of grayish and looked a lot like keim or a contrail and or maybe even cigarettes smoke in the sky, kind of fog at night. Um. And then Ronie was just smoking. And then it wasn't. It wasn't until she saw the picture that the host took of them with, which requires like a long exposure, like ten to fourteen seconds. That's when the colors and all the amazing nous comes out. So everything you've seen in the pictures is from the long exposure, and apparently in person it's very rare that you see something that looks like the pictures. It looks very much different in real life apparently, and that disappointing. That's a huge bummer. But you just saved me like ten grand, so that that is really disappointing. That's a long exposure effect. Yes. For as far as the Independent writer um says that she said when she saw the picture, she was like, Oh, that's yeah, it's a it's a photo that we're seeing. She said, in real life they don't look like that. So the article you can read it yourself. Why seeing the Northern Lights was the most disappointing travel experience of my life, it was in the Independent. I'm gonna change my whisch then I don't want to pay to go on some dumb chase. I just want to happen upon them on a regular trip somewhere there you go. Then I'm already happy with Yeah, like Icelanders And actually she she makes the same exact point. She said, the rest of the trip was awesome. She said the the I think she was in Norway, and she said that the the just everything else about it was one of the best trips she's ever been on. It was the Northern Lights themselves that specifically stunk. And if you make that, you know, part of your tour, but not the whole reason you're going, you probably wouldn't be discipution to to visit the far north of Norway. Well, because I'm sure that's great on its own, you know, That's what she was saying. Yeah, I mean, gosh, I'm scrolling through the pictures now, it's amazing. That's uh. I thought that's what it looked like, right, That's what everybody thinks, apparently, but and sometimes I guess it does. But you are extraordinarily lucky if you're seeing the Northern Lights and it looks like that in person. From from what this lady is saying. Well, plus, if you go on one of those, there's nothing worse than feeling duped into and uh duped into spending a lot of money on a tour. Yeah, at some dude's house. Yeah, I'd like to see video. That would be more telling. Yeah, I can't can't just expose it like that with video, can you not? Well, I mean you can open up the exposure to get a two, get the video to look right, but it won't be just like a you know, it's not like open the exposure on uh, moving traffic at night with a photograph and you'll see like the dragging of the tail lights and stuff like that. Like it, it won't create some weird effect. I wonder if you use like a high speed filter it would do it? Or do you want low speed high speed filter? You know, obviously I'm I'm a professional photographer. Uh. Should we talk a little bit about the sound. Yeah, definitely. It makes a farting noise which is really interesting. Yea. And it kind of smells that would make it all more fun at least. Um. No, But there have long been people that um swore that it makes a sound um and not everyone because apparently and you know, someone actually found this out. It's a sound that only some people can hear sometimes. Yeah, And the conditions have to be super right for it, and there's very specific ones. And there's this one poor guy, his name is Unto kay Lane. He's finished, I belief. Um he's an acoustic acoustician, is there right? Yeah? Um from Finland who was on a camping trip, and I think two thousand and the Northern lights were just going off and going crazy, and he said he could hear like popping and crackling sounds and everyone said, well, that's because you were drunk, and he's like, no, I know for a fact I heard this. So he spent like the next fifteen years basically, um trying to capture the sounds of the Aurora borealis, and he finally was successful apparently in two thousand eleven. Yeah, and his whole deal was, UM, Well, when he was with his friends, first of all, he said, they had to be like completely still. It's not such a noise that you know, they're having a conversation, and they were like, oh, what's that like? They had to be dead silent, They had to not move in order to hear it. And then even within his group some people couldn't hear it at all because it just very low intensity. Right. But he's, like you said, been chasing that buzz ever since. And um, finally is he figured out I think he figured out the conditions first, right or did he do that? Did he back it in afterward? He he put two and two together. So we went out and he captured it one night, right the sounds, and then he went and looked up the UM like I guess the weather services report for that local area, and he figured out that what what he had been sitting under is called a thermal inversion layer where UM kind of warm at least compared to the air beneath it on the ground. UM warm air is kind of trapping the cold there below it, and as long as the conditions are super still, uh, and it's very cold, they're gonna stay separate, right, Yeah, it's gotta be clear, calm and cold, right, So would just be just an irregular aurora, Like you have to have a sub set of conditions to get this crackle noise exactly right. So UM, in the warm air, uh, the warm air layer, a lot of UM electrons are become charged and the cold are below it an opposite charge built, right, So you have this this um electrical charge just waiting to go off and turn into a current. And apparently it's the aurora above it that that causes the charge to actually turn into a current. Yeah, he was pretty surprised at first because he didn't just point a microphone. He had this array so he could triangulate exactly where the sound was coming from, and it was just two thirty ft above him was the sound and he was I don't know what the finished expression for holy crap is it's a oivey. I don't think so, but uh, that's what he said. And he was like, you know this is weird, this so low. Um, And that's when he came up with his theory and it does it check out fully? Or everybody said, you know, that's that's probably right. Yeah, they're like head the very least came up with definitive proof that this was um, the sound coming from it. But yeah, the fact that it was just overhead this in the thermal and vision layer explained how you could conceivably hear the Northern Lights. Amazing, Yeah, pretty amazing. You got anything else? I got nothing else. I'm just disappointed now, Yeah, for real, I'm disappointed in the Northern Lights and our episode on the Northern Lights. Uh if you yeah, man, the sun, anytime the sun comes into play, it's a curse, a pox on us. If you want to know more about the Northern Lights, go see him yourself. And if you have seen them in person and know us to be incorrect. Let us know because we would like our dreams back. Um. You can tweet to us at s SK podcast or josh um Clark. You can hang out with us on Facebook at Stuff you Should Know or Charles W. Chuck Bryant. You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at how Stuff works dot com. And as always, I started this one early which goes to show again, worst episode over, It's time for listener mail. That's right, I'm gonna call this. Uh well, it's just a nice email. Hey, guys, been a fan since two thousand and ten, when I was a freshman in college. I don't think I've ever written in though uh this entire time, have been an evangelist, but to no avail. That all change A few months ago I convinced the love of my life, Meredith, to give you guys a shot, And now she is fun too. She's an outstanding woman and mother and has courageously struck out a loan for a job offer she couldn't refuse. So now we live four hundred miles apart, and having your podcast to talk about keeps a conversation alive on day some weird feeling a bit down? Uh, I know, it's nice. In addition, I will also listen to you guys in the long car rides to visit her. There's a way to distract myself from my own excitement about getting to see her again, and it helps the time pass faster. Uh. I know it's not the first time someone's written to tell you the same thing, and I promise I would never be that listener. But I get it now, and when you find it true love, you just cannot help yourself. Sometimes this does get the coveted shout out. Tell Meredith to keep up the good work and Happy Mother's Day. Keep up the good work, guys. You were the first podcast I ever listened to and still my favorite. Sleep well tonight knowing that you are fostering love and real human connections out here in podcast land. That was a great email. That was nice. That is from Sam Martin and oh maha, he's a medical student and a bar trivia master. Thanks to us, he said, nice. Well, thanks a lot, Sam, Yes, Sam, and Mereth, thanks a lot Meredith for giving us a shot. We're glad it paid off. It reminds me of me and youm do long distance for a while. It can really really suck. Remember that you guys got through that like a champ, though we did like two chaps. Yeah, we've petted each other on the backs. If you want to get in touch with us, you already know how because I said it prematurely. Uh. And in the meantime you can hang out with us. Uh. It's stuff you should know. Dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works? Dot com