What is more beautiful on a cold winter night than catching a glimpse of the aurora borealis—the northern lights—dancing across the sky? This stunning phenomenon is embedded in the mythology of many cultures and has been characterized as everything from dancing spirits to God’s anger. But no one suspected a connection with the sun until a little more than a hundred years ago, when an eccentric Norwegian scientist, Kristian Birkeland, realized that our stormy sun bombards the Earth with particles.

Solar physicist Paal Brekke gives a multimedia presentation on the myths and the modern science behind the northern lights. When associated with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Brekke collaborated closely with the solar physics group at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, who built the largest instrument on the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft, designed to study the sun and the solar wind.

Tonight, Brekke discusses how solar particles are captured by Earth’s magnetic field and guided to the magnetic poles. He also discusses how solar storms can be a hazard for our modern technology- based society—and for humans in space.

Brekke is a senior adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre in Oslo.

See what’s new under the sun (or on it) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Website.