Video
Explain Yourself: Northern Lights
Descriptive Transcript
A young white woman with shoulder length blond hair, wearing a volunteer uniform and planet shaped earrings, sits outside at a picnic table talking to Kylie, who sits just off camera as she talks. She gestures with her hands, looks up while thinking, smiles and chuckles.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm Sydney Furman, and I'm a volunteer astronomer here in the park.
Speaker 2
People ask me a lot if they can see the northern lights at night.
Speaker 1
Time lapse footage of the night sky from a dome shaped observatory camera shows the sky darkening clouds clearing off, stars appearing, and then waves of neon green, purple and pink glowing light flicker across the sky.
Speaker 2
Northern Lights happen when energetic particles from the sun come and interact with our atmosphere and and cause cool colors.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Nice!
Speaker 1
All right, so now let's play a game.
Speaker 1
I want you to tell us about the northern lights using only the ten hundred most-used words in the English language.
Speaker 1
So we have a list here, and we'll let you know what words you can and cannot use. Okay.
Speaker 2
Particles.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say particles.
Speaker 2
Tiny spheres.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say spheres.
Speaker 2
Small pieces of energy.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say energy.
Speaker 2
Small. Hot pieces of the sun.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Small, hot pieces of the sun!
Speaker 2
Hit.
Speaker 2
Earth.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say Earth.
Speaker 1
Oh.
Speaker 2
Our planet.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say planet.
Speaker 2
Our home world.
Speaker 2
And cause more heat.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Can't say heat.
Speaker 2
And cause colors
Speaker 2
in this.
Speaker 2
Small hot pieces of the sun. Hit our home world. And cause colors in the sky.
Speaker 1
[Kylie]: Amazing.
Speaker 2
she's a star. Yeah, I am a star. For I am a star. We are all.
Speaker 1
We. We're all star stuff.
Description
Sydney, an Astronomy Volunteer in Glacier National Park, explains the complex astronomical phenomena of Northern Lights using only the 1000 most common word in the English language.
Duration
1 minute, 27 seconds
Credit
NPS / Renata Harrison & Kylie Caesar
Date Created
09/04/2024
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