The earth holds many a natural spectacle in store, but the heights of space offer an even better view of the northern lights, for example.
ISS – The northern lights are a fascinating natural spectacle even from the ground. In countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland, the greenish plumes in the dark sky are a real tourist magnet. But being able to observe them from space has a completely different quality. This is shown by photos of the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is currently on the International Space Station for the European Space Agency ESA. He shared numerous photos of the natural spectacle on the Flickr platform.
You can see how lightning green plumes snake across the globe, turning reddish in the distance and gradually fading. It is unclear whether the recordings are about the northern lights in the northern hemisphere (aurora borealis, also called “northern lights”) or in the southern hemisphere (aurora australis, also called “southern lights”). “These northern lights are special because they are so bright. The full moon illuminates the shady side of the earth almost like daylight, ”writes Pesquet about the photos from August 20, 2021.
Northern lights: astronaut takes fascinating photos
But what are the northern lights actually? There is a lot of physics behind it. With the solar wind, the sun ejects electrically charged particles that reach the earth’s magnetic field. As soon as these hit the earth’s magnetic force field, a huge electrical voltage builds up, some of which is discharged, especially in the polar regions. If the electrons of the solar wind hit the molecules of the earth’s atmosphere there, they are charged so strongly that they begin to glow – the northern lights appear in the night sky.
In addition to astronauts, the first private individuals recently had the opportunity to view the northern lights from space. Elon Musk * company SpaceX * sent a tourist crew into space * for the first time in September 2021. The mission called “Inspiration4” sent four people into orbit for three days. Also on board was billionaire Jared Isaacman, who replied to Pesquet’s photo on Twitter that his crew had also seen the Aurora, but “not like that.”
“I wasn’t surprised by the northern lights, but I was a little blown away by how breathtaking they really were and how fascinating it was to see them with my own eyes,” said Pesquet’s colleague Megan McArthur, who works as an astronaut for NASA on the ISS is opposite the Business Insider portal. Pesquet and McArthur are due to return to Earth in November, according to the portal. (ial) * fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
