Astronauts on the International Space Station have shared an out-of-this-world view of the auroras that light up the Earth’s atmosphere.
Auroras can be seen from Earth near the North or South Pole, although the view is even more spectacular when designed by the Earth and the universe beyond.
Images shared on the official ISS Twitter account show the shiny green lights traversing countries and oceans, noting that astronomers captured the stunning view as the station tore apart. as high as 51.6 ° above the equator.
The ISS noted that the special view offered an ‘interesting’ view of the Earth’s aurora between the city lights and the fat stars. ‘
The lights, named aurora borealis in the North Pole and aurora australis in the South Pole, are caused by cosmic rays interacting with gases in the upper atmosphere.
When a solar storm approaches us, some of the energy and small particles can travel down the lines of the magnetic field at the north and south poles into the Earth’s atmosphere.
There, the particles interact with gases in our atmosphere leading to beautiful displays of light in the sky. Oxygen gives off green and red light. Nitrogen shines blue and purple.
One of the images, taken on January 12, shows a ‘starry night sky and aurora’ over Russia, between Ukraine and Kazakhstan, as the International Space Station was at 264 miles above the above.
The astronauts saw the lights again when the ISS orbited Kazakhstan the next day, and other images were taken from above Romania, with aurora visible over the Earth’s horizon as the city’s lights shone in the Sweden and Finland.