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Southern lights
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southern lights
Timelapse view from space showing bright green Southern Lights aurora swirling above Earth's clouds, with the spacecraft visible in the foreground.
aurora australis
Green haze over a curved horizon.
Quick Facts
Also called:
Aurora Australis
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southern lights
southern lights Aurora australis over Antarctica as captured by NASA's IMAGE satellite on Sept. 11, 2005 and superimposed onto NASA's satellite-based Blue Marble image.

Southern lights

atmospheric phenomenon
Also known as: aurora australis
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Britannica Editors
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Last updated
•History

Southern lights, luminous atmospheric display visible in the Southern Hemisphere. See aurora.

Timelapse view from space showing bright green Southern Lights aurora swirling above Earth's clouds, with the spacecraft visible in the foreground.
Time-lapse: The Southern LightsIn June 2026, astronauts on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft shared their view with those stuck back on Earth—the southern lights as seen from space.
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Meg Matthias.