Phil: The Northern Lights are particles that are being shot to the north pole and the south pole that produce these beautiful greens and blues and reds, they're not direct particles from the sun. A coronal mass ejection will come and affect the Earth's magnetic field, and changing and hitting the Earth's magnetic field causes other changes on the actual far side, away from the Earth, that then accelerates more particles and shoots those particles then into the north and south pole that produce these very beautiful waves of green and blue and red that are are, just lovely to see. Holly: The Northern Lights or the aurora can be thought of as a huge neon sign. The processes that cause a neon sign to glow are very similar to what is causing the aurora to glow in the Earth's atmosphere.