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“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.” – Ancient Indian Proverb

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AURORA BOREALIS/ NORTHERN LIGHT FACTS

An aurora is a natural light display. Colorful blue, red, yellow, green, and orange lights shift gently and change shape like softly blowing curtains. Auroras are only visible at night, and usually only appear in lower polar regions.

In the ionosphere, the ions of the solar wind collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen from the Earth’s atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions causes a colorful glowing halo around the poles—an aurora. Most auroras happen around 60-620 miles above the Earth’s surface.

MOON FACTS

The moon orbits the Earth at an average speed of 2,300 miles an hour.

The moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth is the main cause of the rise and fall of ocean tides.

The airless lunar surface bakes in the sun at up to 243 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks at a time. Then, for an equal period, the same spot is in the dark. The dark side cools to about -272 degrees Fahrenheit.

The shape of the moon appears to change in a repeating cycle when viewed from the Earth because the amount of illuminated moon we see varies, depending on the moon’s position in relation to the Earth and the sun. We see the full moon when the sun is directly behind us, illuminating a full hemisphere of the moon when it is directly in front of us.

WOLF FACTS

There are five subspecies of gray wolves in North America. Their coat colors can range from pure white to brown, gray, cinnamon or black.

Wolves live and hunt in packs within territories, ranging from 50 to 1,000 square miles.

In the lower 48 states, gray wolves were hunted to near extinction, though some populations survived and others have since been reintroduced. Few gray wolves survive in Europe, though many live in Alaska, Canada, and Asia.

Social creatures, gray wolves have a complex communication system that involves body language, barking, growling, “dancing,” howling and scent making.

Wolf pups are born blind and deaf, and must be cared for until they mature at around ten months of age.

New research has revealed that the common ancestor of dogs and wolves was a large, wolf-like animal that lived between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago. Based on DNA evidence, it lived in Europe.