The Southern Lights occur more than 10 times higher in the sky than the peak of Mount Everest.

The Southern Lights, or Aurora Australis, occur in the thermosphere, a layer of the Earth's atmosphere that begins around 80 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface. According to NASA, most auroral activity takes place between 100 and 300 kilometers (62 to 186 miles) high. This is significantly higher than the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space located at 100 kilometers.The phenomenon is triggered when charged particles from the sun, known as solar wind, collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere. These collisions transfer energy to the atoms, which then release that energy as vibrant light. Because the air at these altitudes is extremely thin, the particles can travel long distances before colliding, allowing the light to spread across vast areas of the sky.Different altitudes produce different colors based on the gases present. Green light, the most common color, is produced by oxygen atoms at altitudes up to 150 kilometers (93 miles). Red auroras are much rarer and occur at even higher altitudes, often above 300 kilometers (186 miles), where oxygen is even less dense. This placement makes the aurora one of the few natural light shows visible from the International Space Station, which orbits at roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles).