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00:04Take a look at this special type of aurora that looks like a glowing necklace draped across the
00:09sky. Known as auroral beads, they usually appear right before huge auroral displays,
00:15according to NASA. Scientists didn't know if auroral beads were connected to other auroras
00:19that come before substorms in space, or if they were caused by disturbances closer to Earth's
00:25atmosphere. Now using new computer models and observations from NASA's STEMIS mission,
00:30they found the first strong evidence of events in space that lead to these beads.
00:35The formation of auroral beads is part of the process that comes before the triggering of a
00:39substorm in space. Models show the beads are caused by turbulence in the plasma surrounding Earth,
00:45which leads to flows seen lighting up the sky like a necklace. They hope to use the new models
00:50to figure out more about other unexplained auroral phenomena.
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