Editing Aurora (section)

== Etymology ==
The term ''aurora borealis'' has been attributed to two sources: [[Galileo Galilei]] in 1619, and [[Pierre Gassendi]] in 1621.<ref name="oed" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Siscoe |first1=G. L. |author-link1=George Siscoe |title=History of Geophysics |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-87590-276-0 |volume=2 |pages=11–14 |chapter=An historical footnote on the origin of 'aurora borealis' |bibcode=1986HGeo....2...11S |doi=10.1029/HG002p0011 |issn=8755-1217}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Guiducci |first1=Mario |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EtbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA39 |title=Discorso delle Comete |last2=Galilei |first2=Galileo |date=1619 |publisher=Pietro Cecconcelli |location=Firenze (Florence), Italy |page=39 |language=it |trans-title=Discourse on Comets |access-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512165109/https://books.google.com/books?id=_EtbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=12 May 2024 |url-status=live}} On p. 39, Galileo explains that auroras are due to sunlight reflecting from thin, high clouds. From p. 39: {{lang|it|"...&nbsp;molti di voi avranno più d'una volta veduto 'l Cielo nell' ore notturne, nelle parti verso Settentrione, illuminato in modo, che di lucidità non-cede alla piu candida Aurora, ne lontana allo spuntar del Sole; effetto, che per mio credere, non-ha origine altrode, che dall' essersi parte dell' aria vaporosa, che circonda la terra, per qualche cagione in modo più del consueto assottigliata, che sublimandosi assai più del suo consueto, abbia sormontato il cono dell' ombra terrestre, si che essendo la sua parte superiore ferita dal Sole abbia potuto rifletterci il suo splendore, e formarci questa boreale aurora."}} ("...&nbsp;many of you will have seen, more than once, the sky in the night hours, in parts towards the north, illuminated in a way that the clear [sky] does not yield to the brighter aurora, far from the rising of the sun; an effect that, by my thinking, has no other origin than being part of the vaporous air that surrounds the Earth, for some reason thinner than usual, which, being sublimated far more than expected, has risen above the cone of the Earth's shadow, so that its upper part, being struck by the sun['s light], has been able to reflect its splendor and to form this aurora borealis.")</ref> The term entered the English language in 1828.<ref name="oed" />

The word ''aurora'' is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn, [[Aurora (mythology)|Aurora]], who travelled from east to west announcing the coming of the [[Sun]].<ref name="oed">{{cite dictionary|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/aurora|title=Aurora|editor-last=Harper|editor-first=Douglas|dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary|date=2025|access-date=5 January 2025 }}</ref> ''Aurora'' was first used in English in the 14th century.<ref name=oed/> The words ''borealis'' and ''australis'' are derived from the names of the ancient gods of the north wind ([[Boreas (god)|Boreas]]) and the south wind ([[Anemoi#Notus (Auster)|Auster or ''australis'']]) in [[Greco-Roman mythology]].<ref name="oed" />