Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) can see cool views of Planet Earth every day. One of the interesting phenomena they saw was the aurora.
Recently, the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, shared a spectacular photo of the aurora as if it enveloped the Earth, from a point 240 kilometers above. Pesquet has shared photos many times but this one is called one of the best.
The photo, taken in late August, shows the green glow of the aurora high in the atmosphere while in the distance, there is a reddish glow. While below it is an area of clouds that float over the ocean.
"Aurora, but this one is special because it is very bright. The Full Moon illuminates the shadowed part of the Earth so that it looks like daylight," Pesquet wrote.
The French astronaut did not provide information on the location of the aurora. In general, auroras come from particles emitted by the Sun and hit the Earth. The particles are flowed to the poles by the Earth's magnetic field, and then interact with the atmosphere.
The solar wind particles always hit the Earth, but sometimes the Sun sends out on such a large scale that it looks amazing aurorae like those captured by Pesquet.
Anyone in Earth orbit can see such a view of the aurora. Recently, an amateur astronaut who flew in a SpaceX capsule on the Inspiration4 mission also witnessed it.
"I'm not surprised by the aurora, but amazed at how amazing this phenomenon is, seeing it with my own eyes," said Megan McArthur, a NASA astronaut who was on the ISS with Pesquet.
