Earth & Space Science

So today I learned about auroras, polar lights/etc. Light emitted by photons and excited states of atoms and all that good junk.
What confused me is the fact that my teacher said that sometimes oxygen and nitrogen in the air would be able to gain/lose protons without becoming an entirely different element. Is this possible, or did my teacher mean photons instead of protons? Or is my teacher entirely misinformed?

An element is defined by the amount of protons it has. So your teacher must have said something wrong.

Neutron variation defines isotopes. Maybe they meant that?

Maybe he/she was talking about fusion/fission?
They don't do that in the atmosphere though :f6: