My dad is from New Zealand. New Zealand is located in the Southern hemisphere of the earth. On Wednesday many people who live in Christchurch, New Zealand got to see the Southern lights or aurora australis. Some call it a solar storm. This is similar to the northern lights where the sky is lit up with different colors. 

What causes the colors in the sky is due to fast moving electrons striking atoms in the earths upper atmosphere... which is mainly Nitrogen and Oxygen. These electrons come from the sun which the earths magnetic field protects us from. Sometimes these electrons make it down towards the earths Northern and Southern poles and through its atmosphere and that's when the electrons collide with Nitrogen and Oxygen. This puts the atoms in an excited state.  While they get back to their regular state they should be in, excess energy is released in the form of visible protons.