Green auroras and a SpaceX Dragon glow in new astronaut photos from the ISS

Space.com

2 hours ago

Green auroras and a SpaceX Dragon glow in new astronaut photos from the ISS_673cec454af2c.jpeg

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.)

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.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured an aurora in November 2024 off the coast of Vancouver (presumably Vancouver in the United States, not Canada, although NASA did not specify in the photo caption). Pettit was working on the International Space Station at the time. (Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit)

green auroras glow above city lights in a photo taken from the international space station — NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured an aurora in November 2024 off the coast of Vancouver (presumably Vancouver in the United States, not Canada, although NASA did not specify in the photo caption). Pettit was working on the International Space Station at the time. (Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit)

“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.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured the Milky Way above Earth, from the International Space Station, in November 2024. (Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit)

“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.”