Chemistry
NEW ELEMENT DISCOVERED!
A new element has been discovered in the mixture that makes up the baked beans in the CHS cafeteria. The new element has been named Beanium (Bm). No tests have been done on this element because the researchers could not determine the atomic mass of this new ground breaking element.
A large sample of this new element has been taken to the high school lab where student chemists are hard at work determining the the atomic mass of Beanium.
CHS LAB
SCIENTISTS WORKING HARD TO DETERMINE THE ATOMIC MASS OF BEANIUM
CHEMISTRY BEHIND THE LIGHTS
Auroras are caused by energized particles from the sun slamming into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph (72 million kph). Earth's magnetic field then redirects the particles toward the north and south poles.
The electrically charged particles then enter Earth's atmosphere, exciting gas atoms and molecules and generating auroras. The process is similar to how neon lights work: When the molecules and atoms get "excited" by electrons, they must return to their original energy (ground state) and do so by releasing the energy as photons (light). The color of the neon light depends on the gas mixture inside the tube, just like the color of auroras depends on the gas mixture in the atmosphere.
The most common aurora color is green.
Green auroras are typically produced when charged particles collide with high concentrations of oxygen molecules in Earth's atmosphere at lower altitudes.
Red auroras are less frequent and are usually associated with intense solar activity. They occur when solar particles react with oxygen at higher altitudes where oxygen is less concentrated and is excited at a higher frequency or wavelength, making reds visible.