Remote Sensing Teaches Us the Cause of The Northern Lights

Thanks to NASA, the age old question of what causes the Northern Lights has been solved! NASA satellites from the THEMIS project were able to watch the whole sequence between the buildup and the appearance of the lights. Apparently giant magnetic fields are pulled then snapped back into place. The force creates the lights. Watch the video on Gizmodo’s site and you can see it happening as the satellites captured it. What did we do before remote sensing?