Northern Lights from Space: NASA astronaut captures stunning video of Aurora

The aurora borealis was recorded in different parts of the world on the night of August 13. But a NASA astronaut showed what the colorful flashes look like from the International Space Station (ISS).

American astronaut Matthew Dominick shared amazing images from the famous Dome module. In addition to the celestial lights of the northern lights, the photos he posted on his X network page also show a bright moon.

In his post, Matthew Dominick noted that a lot of new equipment has recently been delivered to the space station to help take amazing sky photos. And when he saw the aurora borealis aboard the ISS, he could not pass by this bright performance.

"I was tuned into another window and saw it through another window. I quickly grabbed the camera, and the camera mount, dismantling and setting up the hood. I was so lucky to grab this shot," the NASA astronaut shared his joy at the successful shot with his followers.

The photos show that the best place to see the aurora is in space. At an altitude of 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface, the ISS makes 16 revolutions around the planet per day. Regularly flying over its night side, astronauts can closely observe the Moon, which sparkles nearby. "The moon is heading toward the horizon to set among the red and green aurora borealis," Matthew Dominick described the video.

The slow motion of the moon plunging into the red and green aurora, and then seeing the dawn illuminating everything around with light blue rays is something incredible.

According to NASA, several coronal mass ejections have reached the Earth in recent days. Charged solar wind particles collided with the magnetic shield surrounding our planet. This led to the excitation of atoms in the upper atmosphere, which began to glow. This is how the aurora is born.

Scientists emphasize that usually auroras can be seen only at high latitudes. However, the Sun is now very active and regularly produces flares. And when several solar ejections converge, it leads to the fact that the lights can be seen at lower latitudes.

Types of cosmic lights

According to NASA, the northern and southern lights are spectacles of natural light that are caused in our atmosphere and are also known as "auroras". There are two types of aurora borealis – Aurora Borealis, which means "dawn of the north", and Aurora Australis, which means "dawn of the south".

Auroral displays appear in many colors, although pale green and pink are the most traditional.

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