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aurora

  • Jupiter and its moons. (NASA, Wikimedia Commons)
    Jupiter's X-ray Aurora
    Walker Rhea
    A planet has to have a magnetic field to make aurora lights. The sun is always sending out particles called the solar wind. That wind frequently increases in intensity to become a solar storm when large numbers of particles are released.
  • Relief of Ashurbanipal killing a lion. He ruled Assyria in the mid-7th century B.C., the likely period in which Assyrian astrologers observed solar storms. (Wikimedia Commons)
    Ancient Science Part 1 - Astronomy And Medicine In The Ancient Middle East
    Walker Rhea
    While our understanding of things like epilepsy, the stars, and the shape of the Earth has changed dramatically over the centuries, ancient cultures confronted the same universe as we do. Even though their ideas about that universe are often very different from ours, there are also countless insights hidden in scientific writings from over 2,000 years ago.