These are the Northern Lights.

Here, over the snow and ice of the Arctic Circle…

A magical procession of lights dances across the night sky.

It's one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen.

Not surprisingly, ancient peoples thought these lights were from the gods.

But it's simply the Earth's magnetic field made visible.

And it's a very good thing it's there.

This is how the magnetic shield works.

The sun is continually throwing out billions of charged atomic particles.

Lethal to most living things, but luckily the magnetic field deflects them.