Page 44 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

 This picture shows how a storm from the Sun (a coronal mass ejection—see page 35) on the left causes charged particles to spread over the Earth (center) and thus produce an aurora (right).
The region where the solar wind is repulsed is called the Earth’s magnetosphere. Like the Sun’s heliosphere, it is teardrop shaped.
The solar wind is deflected around the Earth, slightly squashing the Earth’s magnetosphere perpendicular to the solar wind. Behind the Earth the Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar wind reinforce each other. As a result,
the magnetosphere is blunted toward the Sun and has an elongated tail away from the Sun that is more than 1 astronomical unit in length.
astronomical unit (au) The average distance from the Earth to the Sun (149,597,870 km).
aurora A region of illumination, often in the form of a wavy curtain, high in the atmosphere of a planet.
electrons Negatively charged particles that are parts of atoms.
fluorescent Emitting the visible light produced by a substance when it is struck by invisible waves, such as ultraviolet waves.
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