Planet Earth.

South Polar region.

The sky is on “fire”.

The aurora australis — the southern lights — snakes its way across the Earth’s magnetic field as seen from above!

In this picture taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, charged particles from the sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, lighting up the sky.

Things like this is why I prefer science to superstition and mythology.  Those stories are entertaining, and inform much morality, but they pale before the real thing.  This isn’t because some “god” decided to light the sky on fire, this is simply the end result of natural processes.  Figuring out why it happens, how that might affect us, and that it might lead to other exciting discoveries and advances is what science is all about.  How unsatisfying to say merely “because God made it that way”.