Aurora Makers | Interactive Mobile Fix

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Your Arctic night sky

Launch electrons to paint the night!

Aurora pattern: Curtains

✦ Each flash represents many real photons.

Color counts:0000

No auroras yet

01 / The science

Electron collision chamber

Target: Oxygen (O)

👆 Tap or click to fire one electron

Latest observation

Ready for a collision

An energetic electron can excite an atom or molecule. As it relaxes, it releases light!

Electron → Gas → Photon ✨

03 / Quick experiments

Try an aurora recipe

Pick a starting experiment or build your own combinations.

04 / Explorer's challenge

Five discovery missions

Experiment with combinations to collect all five badges.

Teacher & student science notes

What's really happening up there?

⚡ Step 1: Energy from the Sun

The solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetic field. Some of that energy accelerates electrons that travel into the atmosphere near the magnetic poles.

✨ Step 2: Gases make the colors

Energetic electrons collide with oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules. These become excited, then release light as they settle down. Oxygen commonly glows green (about 100–200 km) or red (above about 200 km); nitrogen can make blue and pink/purple glows.

〰 Step 3: Magnetic forces make the shapes

Aurora curtains, arcs, rays, and patches reflect where energetic electrons travel and how they enter the atmosphere along magnetic field lines. Gas type determines color—not the shape!

🔬 Important: how this model simplifies real auroras

You can independently set collision altitude, electron energy, gas, and sky shape to investigate each variable. In reality, high-energy electrons tend to penetrate deeper, gas concentrations change with altitude, and different emissions have different lifetimes. A selected combination is an illustrative experiment, not a prediction that every collision creates that exact color or brightness. One visible aurora contains an enormous number of light-emitting events. The animations are not to scale.

Scientific background: NASA: Auroras · NOAA: Space Weather Glossary. Offline: all core visuals and interactions work without internet.

Aurora Makers — My science investigation: ________________________________________________