Northern lights: Create your own display with these household items

PHILADELPHIA - If you didn't get to see the northern lights Thursday night, there will be more opportunities. The sun is still in its active cycle for a few more months. So, it'll continue to send out big blasts of charged up gases.

When there is a huge blast, more of those charged gases can sneak into earth around the North and South Pole than is typically noticeable. This leads to the northern lights visible farther south.

Scientists believe the sun will start transitioning to its less active cycle next year, leading to fewer opportunities for the northern lights to reach the Delaware Valley.

These cycles, by the way, last years. The sun has an active period for years, which eventually peaks, and so far that has been 2024. Then, the sun reverses course and heads into years of less active times, when fewer big blasts leave the sun.

If you think of it in terms of a calendar and seasons, the sun's calendar would be 11 or 12 years long, with two season-like periods - an active period of five or six years and a less active period of the same amount of years.

CREATE YOUR OWN NORTHERN LIGHTS

In times when we don't see the northern lights in the region, we found some household items to recreate the northern lights vibes.

What you will need:

Dish soap, food dye, whole milk, a wide round bowl, and cotton swabs.

Instructions:

1. Add the milk to the bowl so it's an inch high.
2. Next drop in about six drops of food coloring.
3. Dip a cotton swab into the soap so it's fully wet with soap.
4. Then, tap on the food dye spot with the soapy cotton swap and watch northern lights-like colors appear.

This happens because of the way soap interacts with the surface of the milk.

Dow, a science company, explains more about the science of the experiment. Find out more, here.