Have you ever seen something and didn't know what it was? The first time you saw French fries you probably didn't know they were potatoes. Well, in science, sometimes the same kind of thing happens. About 100 years ago, people in England heard some strange noises on their newly developed telephones. They heard these strange sounds during a time when aurora borealis or the Northern Lights occurred but didn't really put the two things together. Just as you didn't know French fries were potatoes, the telephone operators didn't know the noises were caused by something happening in outer space. It wasn't until the satellites of the 1950's that we discovered what caused the strange whistles in the phone lines in England.

This is a photograph of an aurora taken from the space shuttle. Auroras are trails of light that appear near the North and South Poles. Changes in the solar wind can cause changes in the earth's magnetosphere. These changes or "space storms" cause the aurora. When really strong space storms happen, people farther away from the poles can see them.

The people in England listening on their telephones during an aurora similar to that shown, might have heard something like this ...

Very Low Frequency Saucers Audio Clip