Awasome How Are Northern Lights Formed References. Early eskimos and indians believed different legends about the northern lights, such as that they were the souls of animals dancing in the sky or the souls of fallen enemies trying to. Nitrogen glows blue and purple.

The detail of the phenomenon is not lost on darren baskill, a physics and astronomy lecturer at sussex university. These green bands of light in the winter sky above alaska are an aurora borealis. During a weak aurora, the colours are very faint and spread out whereas an intense aurora.