Talk about irony. Last week, while seemingly all of North America was getting rare views of the northern lights, I was standing in almost blizzard-like conditions on the deck of a cruise ship in Norway, desperately searching for a glimpse of the phenomenon through foggy, snowy skies.
“It’s a challenge,” said Tom Kerss, an astronomer, author, and chief aurora chaser for Hurtigruten, which was hosting a preview of its new series of northern lights–focused astronomy sailings that will launch on select itineraries of its upscale Signature sailings in January. “But we love a chase.”
Our patience—and persistence—paid off as the skies gradually cleared over the next few days, culminating in dramatic views of the aurora borealis swirling and dancing across the dark midnight sky as we sailed away from Narvik, a Norwegian town within the Arctic Circle.
Perhaps even more fascinating, however, was learning about the many mysteries still surrounding this seemingly magical event, as well as its connection to both the polar region’s Indigenous people and modern science’s search for extraterrestrial life.
References to and depictions of what are believed to be the northern lights go back as far as recorded history, from mythology to biblical references and observations by early polar explorers. In the Arctic, the Sami people still conduct ceremonies to connect with ancestors through the aurora (Hurtigruten also recently introduced new sailings that highlight Sami culture, primarily through their cuisine).
And while science has been able to answer many questions about how the collision between solar winds and the earth’s magnetic field creates the lights, how the differences in levels of oxygen and nitrogen during collisions cause color changes, and when they might occur, the aurora remains one of the most awe-inspiring and still largely unpredictable forces of nature.
We talked with Kerss about what fuels our ongoing fascination with the auroras, and how, when, and where to travel for the best views.
What is it about the northern lights that so captivates us?
The aurora has such a unique quality that I think we see it in the same way that ancient people saw it. It is no less mysterious to us now than it was then. Even though we understand it because we have a scientific model of the aurora, and we can, to some degree, forecast its activity, it’s tempting to believe that some of the magic has been lost. But the reality is that it hasn’t. What makes the aurora so fascinating is that it moves like it has a mind of its own. Its unpredictable nature and creature-like quality make it feel more like a wild animal than an eternal, unchanging sight in the sky, like a star or a Nebula or a galaxy. It’s addicting.
It seems like we have been hearing about and seeing more about the northern lights farther from the Arctic in recent years. Why is that?
Every 11 years, the sun is maximally active. And the last maximum period of activity was in October 2024. We are still in the tail of the current solar maximum, which means we’re experiencing greater frequency of activity. We might get a second peak at the end of this year.
If someone saw the northern lights in the United States last week, is it worth it for them to travel to the Arctic to try to see them again?
It’s a much different experience when you go north and stand underneath it than when it comes over the northern horizon and glimmers in the sky a little. I liken it to the snow leopard you might see. Most people wouldn’t be satisfied to say they’d seen a snow leopard if all they saw was the tail going behind the rock, and they might get the bug to start staying out or trying to find it. So I love that the aurora does occasionally become more visible, because not everybody has the privilege to be able to travel, of course. So it’s great when it’s more accessible, but also it really is an invitation to make a kind of Arctic adventure of your own, which I think everybody should do, if they can.
During a November sailing, after a couple cloudy days with no viewing opportunities, the clouds finally parted, and guests aboard a Hurtigruten cruise were dazzled by the aurora borealis.
Courtesy of Hurtigruten
What is the best place to see the northern lights?
Norway is my favorite place because Norway has something that other places are missing. It’s a land where the sea and the sky meet. And there’s a triptych of beautiful things to see here: the ocean, the landscapes, and the sky. The geology, to me, is extraordinary. It’s a bit like being on another planet, in a way. The coast of Norway also offers a lot of beautiful and dramatic but also sheltered locations. And one benefit that Norway has over, for example, Finland is that it is never as cold as the interior of Finland. When it’s minus five (Celsius) in Tromsø, it’s minus 25 (Celsius) in Finland.
There has been a marked increase in astro-tourism over the past decade. What do you think is driving that?
I think part of the fascination is that it’s an extraordinary natural phenomenon. Now more than ever, our kind of technological and insular lives are not satisfying us, and we are increasingly driven to extraordinary natural phenomena. And so there exists a whole industry just to try and put people in touch with the northern lights so they can experience something that only nature can provide.
What are your main tips for people who want to search for the northern lights on their own?
First, think about where the moon is going to be. If you go when the moon is full, the moon is going to brighten the sky, and it’s going to make faint auroras more difficult to see. The counterpoint is it will also illuminate the landscape and make your photos very beautiful. But if you’re a first-time aurora chaser—probably best for you to go during a moonless period. Secondly, could you travel during the equinoxes? There is a bump in auroral activity around the equinoxes in late September and late March. Third, do some research on locations you can reach near to where you’re staying or going, where you can reasonably drive within 30 minutes to an hour, which are dark, which are safe, and which are likely to have better weather. Give yourself at least four nights, because typically, in places where the weather forecast is 50 percent cloud cover for a given week, four nights gives you the opportunity for two nights of viewing and two nights not viewing. The last one is perseverance.
In one of your lectures, you talked about a connection between auroras and extraterrestrial life. Can you explain?
We see auroras on other worlds where the three prerequisites exist: some particulate radiation (like solar wind), a magnetic field, and an atmosphere. When we think of exoplanets, or extrasolar planets outside the solar system, and the search for life, we’re interested in finding Earth-like conditions elsewhere. Earth’s auroras reveal clues about its atmosphere and magnetic field, so if we can detect auroras on worlds elsewhere in the galaxy, those measurements become part of the tool set we can use to characterize exoplanets and determine whether they’re potentially habitable. Extraterrestrial life might be right on our doorstep, and thanks to the auroras, we may soon find it.
Huritgruten will launch the inaugural sailings of its Astronomy Voyage on Signature with Kerss on January 30 and February 13. The 15-day, 13-stop tour starts and ends in Oslo and features eight lectures and two masterclasses. Prices start at $4,644 per person.
