By James Simons-
Astronauts on the International Space Station have shared an out-of-this-world look at the auroras that light up the Earth’s atmosphere.
The pictures reveal Auroras from Earth near the North or South Pole
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Astronauts caught the impressive view as the station orbited as high as 51.6° above the equator, and the unique viewpoint was said to have offered an ‘awe-inspiring’ look at ‘the Earth’s aurora in between the city lights and the twinkling stars.’
The lights, named aurora borealis in the North Pole and aurora australis in the South Pole, are caused by cosmic rays interact with gasses in the upper atmosphere.
On January 13, Expedition crew 46 shared an image while soaring above Kazakhstan in Russia, which captured the city’s bright lights at night and above was a curved beam of green auroras.
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One of the best images was taken January 7 that shows the 74 resupply ship hanging in the darkness that is space and down below are the puffy white clouds in our atmosphere.
Space_Station/Twitter/NASA/Johnson/Flickr
The Expedition 64 crew currently living on the International Space Station captured a number of stunning images of the natural phenomenon while orbiting more than 250 miles above the surface
And in the distance, the aurora australis can be shinning from the horizon.
When a solar storm comes toward us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles into Earth’s atmosphere.
There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere resulting in beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple.
One of the images, taken on January 12, shows ‘a starry night sky and an aurora’ above Russia, in between Ukraine and Kazakhstan, as the International Space Station orbited 264 miles overhead.
Astronauts spotted the lights again as the ISS orbited over Kazakhstan the following day, while other images were taken from above Romania, with an aurora visible over the Earth’s horizon as the city lights sparkled in Sweden and Finland.
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