A gorgeous view of auroras an astronaut spotted in space may leave you a little green with envy.
International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Matthew Dominick recently captured auroras dancing behind a Russia Soyuz spacecraft on the orbiting complex.
“Recent solar activity pushed the aurora closer to us. The Soyuz hangs from the station in a stream of aurora,” NASA‘s Dominick wrote Aug. 2 on X.
“Soyuz is illuminated in a light blue from a sun behind the camera and in front of the space station that is just about to rise,” added Dominick, who also added his camera settings for photographers: 1/4s, f1.4, 50mm, ISO 6400.
In his responses, Dominick added the image was taken as the sun was visible behind the camera, “so that a little bit of light illuminates the Soyuz but does not wash out the aurora.”
Earth’s auroras are caused by charged particles from the sun slamming into molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, which are excited to higher energy levels and emit light as a result. Different molecules emit different colors; a green glow, for example, comes from excited oxygen.
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Dominick, an Expedition 71 astronaut with SpaceX‘s Crew-8 mission, which arrived at the ISS in March, has taken numerous time-lapse photos from the ISS. These include views of Boeing’s Starliner capsule docked at the complex, his own SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, meteors and other auroral shows enhanced by the sun‘s ongoing peak in the 11-year cycle of solar activity.
In a recent online event, Dominick shared that he has taken as many as 200,000 photos aboard the ISS in his half-year mission. Astronaut photography is used for Earth observation and ISS maintenance as a matter of course, but some people like Dominick also open the lens again during their spare time.
“It’s just an incredible view out the window,” said Dominick during the NASA-hosted event on X Spaces. “And I realize that so many people are fascinated by the pictures that we get to take up here.”
