CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Scientists have exposed some of the mystery behind the northern lights.

On Thursday, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights to burst in spectacular shapes and colors and dance across the sky. The findings should help scientists better understand the more powerful but less common geomagnetic storms that can knock out satellites, harm astronauts in orbit and disrupt power and communications on Earth, scientists said.

A fleet of five small satellites observed the beginning of a geomagnetic storm in February. Ground observatories recorded the brightening of the northern lights. The southern lights also brightened and darted across the sky at the same time. These auroral flare-ups occur every two or three days, on average.

A team led by University of California, Los Angeles, scientist Vassilis Angelopoulos confirmed that the observed storm about 80,000 miles from Earth was triggered by a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection. Every so often, the Earth’s magnetic field lines that are stretched like rubber bands by solar energy, snap, and are thrown back to Earth and reconnect, in effect creating a short circuit. It’s this stored-up energy that powers the northern and southern lights or, in other words, causes them to dance, according to Angelopoulos.

“Finally, we have the right instruments in the right place at the right time, and it’s allowed scientists to be able to make the necessary observations to settle this heated debate,” said Nicola Fox, a Johns Hopkins University scientist not involved in the study.