Sam Sampere, lab manager for Syracuse University's physics department, can explain a lot — like how and why the Northern Lights happen. 

"We're bombarded with particles raining down on us from the sun. They're coming from the sky, subatomic particles, they're flying pretty fast," Sampere said. "Every time you see a little white streak going through there, that's a subatomic particle. Most of them are coming down from the atmosphere, from space, from the sun."

Particles emitted from a sun solar flare collide with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. The particles can spiral and stay in our atmosphere because of Earth's magnetic field.

These collisions result in little bursts of light called photons. These make up the Northern Lights. 

"It just so happens that three days ago we detected what's called a coronal mass ejection," Sampere said.

Meaning there were a lot of particles blasted away from the sun. 

"Now there are so many of them because of this coronal mass ejection. The lights will be bright enough to detect with our eyes at these lower latitudes," Sampere said.  

Between Wednesday and Friday, the lights could be seen in places like Syracuse. 

"Knock on wood that we don't have clouds tonight. Go find a dark location and gaze northwards and maybe we will see some lights dancing around in the sky," Sampere said.