What is the history behind auroras?

Spectacular auroral eruptions have given rise to mythological creatures, have driven folklore, and have influenced the course of history, religion, and art. Image to right: Cro-Magnon cave-paintings: "macaronis" may be earliest depiction of aurora (30,000 B.C.) Click image to enlarge. read more

Means "dawn" in Latin. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the morning. It has occasionally been used as a given name since the Renaissance. read more

Although the name reflects Galileo’s Italian worldview, the lights are part of the oral history of most of the cultures in the latitudes in which the Northern Lights are seen. The indigenous peoples of America and Canada have traditions related to the auroras. read more