Have you heard of the Arctic? What about Antarctica? They are places near the top and bottom of the world.
Winter is very dark there. The sun does not rise very high in the sky. And in some places, it does not rise at all! Days are short, and nights are long.
Sometimes, you can see beautiful colors in the night sky. Red, pink, green, and white seem to dance across the dark sky.
These colorful lights are called the aurora. You might have heard another name for them. The aurora is called the northern lights in the Arctic. In Antarctica, it is called the southern lights.
Why do we see these beautiful colors?
Long ago, people told stories about the colors they saw. They tried to explain why the colors were there. Some people were afraid of the colors. They thought that something terrible would happen. Other people thought the colors were a path to the heavens.
Today, scientists study the Earth and the Sun. They want to learn about the aurora and why it happens.

License information: CC BY-SA 3.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: http://static.ehe.osu.edu/sites/beyond/penguins/downloads/feature-stories/aurora-23-text.pdf