The International Space Station astronauts see amazing views of Earth every single day. But one phenomenon never ceases to amaze them: the aurora.
Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, shared a jaw-dropping photograph of the polar lights taken from his vantage point at 250 miles (402km), above Earth on Friday. This is one of the most stunning images ever taken from the ISS.
Pesquet took the photo on August 20. It shows green ribbons running across the planet. They are visible arcing high in the atmosphere close to the horizon and then fade into red flashes in the distance. Under the colorful display of clouds, the ocean is covered by clouds.
Photographed from the ISS on 20 August 2021, aurora. (T. Pesquet/ESA/NASA).
"Another aurora, but this one is very special because it is so bright. Pesquet tweeted that it was the full moon lighting up Earth's shadow side almost as if it were daylight.
He didn't specify the location of the lights, nor whether they were the northern or southern aurora borealis.
The Sun's charged particles hitting our planet are what create the Auroras. These particles are then channeled to our poles by our magnetic field. They interact with particles in the atmosphere.
The solar wind stream, as it is known, is constantly washing over Earth. However, sometimes, eruptions on Sun send larger surges of particles, creating striking auroras such as this one.
Aurora Australis, as seen from International Space Station on 25 June 2017. (NASA).
These lights are likely to be seen by anyone orbiting Earth. SpaceX's first tourist crew spotted them in orbit earlier this month.
The mission called Inspiration4 sent four civilians into orbit for three consecutive days. Jared Isaacman, a billionaire, replied to Pesquet’s tweet by saying that his crew had seen the aurora, but not like that.
Isaacman's crew also flew to SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship. Crew-2 is the second full mission of SpaceX's astronauts.
Megan McArthur from NASA, Pesquet's NASA crewmate, said last month that she was also amazed by the polar lights.
She said, "I wasn’t surprised by the auroras but I was kinda bowled over how breathtaking they were and how mesmerizing to see them with my own eyes."
McArthur and Pesquet will be returning to Earth in November.
Business Insider originally published this article.
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