New astronaut photos from the ISS feature glowing green auroras alongside a SpaceX Dragon.
Green auroras and a SpaceX Dragon glow in new astronaut photos from the ISS (Image Credit: Space.com)
There’s a fire in the sky, and it’s not because of the Dragon in sight.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured both an aurora and a docked SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the International Space Station (ISS) recently.
In the timelapse photo, city lights appear as glowing streaks on Earth, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) below the orbiting complex.
Meanwhile, high activity from the sun sparked green northern lights visible on the horizon. (Auroras happen when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s upper atmosphere.)
Related: ‘Spaceborne’: Astronaut Don Pettit’s amazing space photos (gallery)
As shown in his other photos, however, Pettit sometimes crops his images so the outline of the ISS window is not visible. But the four-time spaceflyer added that he’s conscientious about such framing.
“When observing Earth, I like the effect of an oval window,” Pettit wrote Sunday (Nov. 12) on X, formerly Twitter, of his view from the ISS.
“It adds a certain measure of aesthetics over that of a round window,” Pettit noted of photographing through the oval.
“However,” he joked, “when you are living in a metal can for six months at a time, I will be happy with any shape of window.”
