Get wind of this...
Genesis carried out its investigation around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. That's still about 150 million kilometres from the Sun, but it's close enough to catch the solar wind.
This wind is a stream of electrically charged particles that constantly flows from the Sun's outer layers. The Earth's magnetic field protects us from these particles, but sometimes they interact with our atmosphere. That's what causes the auroras, or Northern and Southern Lights.
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Images: Jan Curtis |
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