Northern lights have been fascinating mankind since at least 977 or 957 BC... Throughout the history, humans have gazed in awe at astronomical wonder that is aurora borealis : Finnish name for northern lights is revontulet, meaning “fox fires.” Legend says that foxes made of fire lived in Lapland and their frisky tails whirled sparks into sky. In Estonia, name is virmalised, meaning spirit beings of higher realms. Inuits of northern Greenland believed spirits were playing games, throwing a walrus skull across sky; while Vikings thought phenomenon was light reflecting off armor of Valkyrie, supernatural maidens who brought warriors into afterlife. In April 2022, scientists discovered oldest known written record of aurora, predating a previous finding by some three centuries. Researchers Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs, an independent researcher, and Hisashi Hayakawa from Nagoya University, found documentation in Chinese history, and published findings in journal Advances in Space Research. When solar wind, a stream of charged particles – protons and electrons – flow from sun and collide with Earth’s atmosphere, it creates northern lights. Particles crash into Earth’s ionsphere’s atoms and molecules releasing energy that visibly glows. Aurora can take different shapes (arcs, streaks, curtains) and colors (green, red, purple) depending on what atoms the solar wind collides with. Van der Sluijs and Hayakawa found a passage in Chinese history called Bamboo Annals or Zhushu Jinian in Mandarin, that referenced these colors. The passage, composed in 4th Century BC, described a “five-colored light” in northern part of sky that occurred at end of King Zhao of Zhou dynasty’s reign. Although researchers cannot pinpoint an exact date with certainty, they conclude that Chinese saw geomagnetic phenomena in 977 or 957 BC. Earth’s north magnetic pole, at that time, was known to have been inclined to Eurasian side in mid-10th Century BC. It was closer to central China by some 15 degrees than at present. Therefore, it would have been possible for China’s king and all those in his sphere to see aurora. References to aurora have appeared throughout history, even in Stone Age cave paintings, dating back 30,000 years ago. In his book, Meteorology, written over 2000 years ago, Aristotle described aurora, saying “sometimes on a fine night we see a variety of appearance that form in sky: ‘chasms’ for instance and ‘trenches’ and blood-red colors.” But prior to Chinese passage, earliest known recording of northern lights happened around 679-655 BC. Assyrian astronomers inscribed an aurora event on cuneiform tablets. Biblical accounts of Hebrew prophet Ezekiel described a vision that some scholars say resembles northern lights. Babylonia King Nebuchadnezzar II noted an aurora in his astronomical diary, 567 BC. In 34 AD, Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar dispatched men to Ostia thinking it was burning in flames. It was not, and instead aurora glowed overhead. It wasn’t until 1619 though, that Galileo Galilei coined term “aurora borealis.” Derived from Greek words “aurora” meaning “sunrise” and “boreas” meaning “wind,” Greeks believed Aurora to be sister of Helios and Selene. Helios was sun. Selene was moon. It was Aurora who raced her colorful chariot across sky to alert her siblings to dawn of each day. Later, Henry Cavendish recorded first scientific observations) of northern lights in 1790. Using triangulation, French-born English scientist determined aurora borealis ococcurred 60 miles above Earth’s surface. It was British astronomer Richard Carrington, in 1859, who linked aurora borealis with sun. And even though Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, in early 1900s, was first to explain what caused northern lights, Benjamin Franklin also had a theory on a ship sailing across the Atlantic. He noted a concentration of electrical charges in North Pole that intensified by snow and moisture caused lights. 📷 : Credit to the Owner #archaeohistories