An aurora is an amazing natural light show in the sky most often seen in the arctic and antarctic regions the name aurora comes from the latin word meaning sunrise and was the name of the roman goddess of the dawn in the northern latitudes the aurora is called the aurora borealis or the northern lights boreas is the greek name for the north wind in the southern latitudes the aurora is called aurora australis or the southern lights australis means quotof the southquot in latin these ligh