Jack Glover, age 11, of Bountiful, Utah, for his question:

What causes the aurora borealis?

The aurora works somewhat like a fluorescent light tube    on a grand and gorgeous scale. In both cases, the light is produced by energetic charged particles. It is thought that the aurora is sparked by electrically charged protons and electrons, pouring forth from stormy spots on the face of the sun.. During sunspot activity, they zoom across space at speeds approaching the velocity of light. When they reach the vicinity of the earth, they are deflected toward the planet's powerful magnetic poles.

In the upper atmosphere, the solar particles collide with gaseous atoms and molecules of the thin air. These collisions cause the streams of charged particles to release their electrical energy in glimmering light. This occurs between 60 and 600 miles above the surface and aurora displays tend to radiate outward from above the earth's north and south magnetic poles.