Practical Application
Aurora and Oxygen
The earth’s aurora spans a color spectrum too vast even for the human
eye to fully appreciate. The most common color seen on earth is green, caused
by reactions between oxygen molecules from 100-200 km. Scientists have discovered
that there are numerous other bodies in space that appear to have the potential
to host life. The following photo depicts Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede,
and the indication of an atmosphere because of its green auroral cloud.
This image, taken from the Hubbell, illustrates
the aurora over Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede's.
(NASA and Space Telescope Science Institute)