Answer | You.com | Documentation

{
  "answer": "The aurora borealis is caused by charged particles ejected from the Sun—carried by the solar wind and often intensified by solar flares or coronal mass ejections—that travel to Earth, are funneled by Earth's magnetic field toward the polar regions, and collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper atmosphere. These collisions excite the atoms, which then release photons of light, creating the visible northern lights. [[1, 2, 3]]",
  "citations": [
    {
      "source": "https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/SCIENCE/aurora.html",
      "excerpts": [
        "Auroras are brilliant ribbons of light weaving across Earth's northern or southern polar regions. These natural light shows are caused by magnetic storms that have been triggered by solar activity, such as solar flares (explosions on the Sun) or coronal mass ejections (ejected gas bubbles). Energetic charged particles from these events are carried from the Sun by the solar wind.",
        "When these particles seep through Earth's magnetosphere, they cause substorms. Then fast moving particles slam into our thin, high atmosphere, colliding with Earth's oxygen and nitrogen particles. As these air particles shed the energy they picked up from the collision, each atom starts to glow in a different color."
      ]
    },
    {
      "source": "https://www.valofinland.com/what-causes-the-colours-in-aurora-borealis/",
      "excerpts": [
        "The Aurora Borealis is a result of interactions between solar wind and the Earth's atmosphere. Solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the sun's upper atmosphere, known as the corona. When these particles reach Earth, they collide with gases in our atmosphere, such as oxygen and nitrogen. These collisions excite the gas particles, causing them to emit light."
      ]
    },
    {
      "source": "https://triplefatgoose.com/blogs/down-time/understanding-the-aurora-borealis",
      "excerpts": [
        "When electrons fly through space, two things can happen: they are reflected away by the Earth's magnetic field, or they follow it to the poles. Because the magnetic field is weaker at the poles, the electrons are able to freely enter the atmosphere without being reflected away."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "results": {
    "web": [
      {
        "url": "https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/SCIENCE/aurora.html",
        "title": "How Auroras Form",
        "snippets": [
          "Auroras are brilliant ribbons of light weaving across Earth's northern or southern polar regions. These natural light shows are caused by magnetic storms that have been triggered by solar activity."
        ],
        "description": "Auroras are brilliant ribbons of light weaving across Earth's northern or southern polar regions."
      },
      {
        "url": "https://auroraqueenresort.fi/what-causes-the-northern-lights-to-appear/",
        "title": "What causes the northern lights to appear? - Aurora Queen Resort",
        "snippets": [
          "The northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, are a mesmerising natural light display that occurs when charged particles from the sun collide with gases in Earth's atmosphere."
        ],
        "description": "Discover what causes the northern lights to appear and why these mesmerizing displays illuminate Arctic skies in various colors. Learn when and where to witness this celestial phenomenon.",
        "thumbnail_url": "https://auroraqueenresort.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Aurora-Queen-Resort-1024x768.jpg",
        "page_age": "2025-06-13T04:55:47"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://triplefatgoose.com/blogs/down-time/understanding-the-aurora-borealis",
        "title": "The Aurora Borealis",
        "snippets": [
          "When millions of photons of light are emitted at the same time, it causes the sky to light up and creates the Aurora Borealis."
        ],
        "description": "Learn how charged particles from the sun produce the aurora borealis."
      }
    ]
  }
}

Returns a synthesized natural-language answer with citations and the web results used to generate it. Provide a query and optional freshness, locale, domain, and explicit-content controls.

Authentication

X-API-Keystring

The unique API Key required to authorize API access. Learn how to get yours in the “Get your API key” section of the documentation.

Request

This endpoint expects an object.

querystringRequiredformat: "\S"<=400 characters

The search query used to retrieve relevant web results.

freshnessenum or stringOptional

Specifies the freshness of the results to return. Provide either one of day, week, month, year, or a date range string in the format YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD.

When your search query includes a temporal keyword and you also set a freshness parameter, the search will use the broader timeframe. For example, if you use query=news+this+week&freshness=month, the results will use a freshness of month.

countryenumOptional

A supported country code that determines the geographical focus of the web results.

languageenumOptional

A supported BCP 47 language tag that determines the language of the web results.

safesearchenumOptionalDefaults to moderate

Configures the safesearch filter for content moderation. This allows you to decide whether to return NSFW content or not.

Allowed values:

include_domainslist of stringsOptional

Domains to exclusively include in web results. This is a strict allowlist, not a ranking boost. Supports up to 500 domains. Cannot be combined with exclude_domains or boost_domains.

exclude_domainslist of stringsOptional

Domains to exclude from web results. Supports up to 500 domains. Cannot be combined with include_domains. Can be combined with boost_domains.

boost_domainslist of stringsOptional

Domains to prefer in search ranking without excluding results from other domains. Supports up to 500 domains. Can be combined with exclude_domains, but not with include_domains.

Response

A JSON object containing a synthesized answer with citations and supporting search results

answerstring

The synthesized response with numbered inline citations that reference items in the citations array.

citationslist of objects

The sources cited in the answer, in citation order. Each item includes the source URL and verbatim excerpts that support the answer.

resultsobject

Search results grouped by result type. All current search results are grouped under web.

Errors

401

Unauthorized Error

402

Payment Required Error

403

Forbidden Error

422

Unprocessable Entity Error

500

Internal Server Error