The aurora – a beautiful spectacle of natural light – is usually only viewed from Earth.
But lucky astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) got a unique view of the spectacle – with Earth in the background.
Stunning video footage shows the brilliant green stream of wispy light spanning thousands of miles across our planet.
In the foreground is Boeing’s cone-shaped Starliner capsule, which was originally supposed to return to Earth by now.
The clip was filmed by NASA’s Matthew Dominick aboard the ISS, which orbits the Earth about 250 miles above sea level.
Incredible: NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick shared his view of the aurora above Earth as seen from the International Space Station (ISS) with Boeing’s Starliner in the foreground
What is aurora?
Auroras are beautiful natural light shows that can be seen after sunset, usually in locations close to the North and South Poles.
Although auroras are best seen at night, they are caused by energetic particles emitted by the sun.
After traveling a distance of more than 90 million miles, these particles interact with gases in our atmosphere, resulting in beautiful light shows in the sky.
Oxygen gives green and red light. Nitrogen glows blue and purple.
Dominick has been aboard the ISS since early March when he took a trip aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Astronauts on the ISS have their own personal Internet connection, meaning they can post to X, send emails and more.
Dominick took to
“It was great timing for the aurora to line up nicely with the thrusters of Starliner’s service modules.”
An aurora is caused by disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere due to a stream of particles from the Sun and is usually located around the Earth’s magnetic poles. That is why it is known as the Northern or Southern Lights.
The charged particles are expelled from the sun at high speed before interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
Although the aurora in this video is green, its color appearance depends in part on the molecules with which the charged particles interact.
Red and green colors are usually signs of oxygen, pink and red the signs of nitrogen, while blue and purple are the result of hydrogen and helium.
Although it is unclear from the video exactly where the ISS was at that moment, we know that the ISS follows a circular path around our planet.
This image shows one orbit of the ISS around Earth, lasting up to 93 minutes. On a 2D map the track looks like a wave (but this is because it is a projection of a 3D path on a 2D map)This image courtesy of Maxar Technologies, taken on June 7, 2024, shows the Boeing Starliner spacecraft docked in the forward port of the International Space Station (ISS) on the station’s Harmony module. Because Starliner is docked to the ISS, astronauts can still hop on and off Starliner whenever they wantCrew aboard the ISS: Front, left to right, Suni Williams, Oleg Kononenko and Butch Wilmore. Second row from left is Alexander Grebenkin, Tracy C. Dyson and Mike Barratt. In the back are Nikolai Chub, Jeanette Epps and Matthew Dominick
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Also in the video we can see Starliner’s small square window dramatically illuminated with brilliant bursts of bright light.
These are flashlights operated by fellow NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who made a trip to the ISS aboard Starliner on June 5 and arrived the next day.
Wilmore and Williams were only supposed to stay on the ISS for a week, but persistent problems at Starliner mean that they cannot go home yet and have to stay longer than planned.
Officials have discovered five different leaks in Starliner’s propulsion system, which could prevent the spacecraft from navigating through space as it returns to Earth.
NASA says Starliner will now return to Earth no earlier than Saturday, June 22 – more than a week later than originally planned.
Bottom view of the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2021, orbiting about 400 kilometers above EarthStarliner is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, April 16, 2024
“The additional time will allow the team to complete departure planning and operations while keeping the spacecraft clear for emergency crew return scenarios within flight rules,” NASA and Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing is one of three companies participating in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program – an initiative to fly teams of astronauts to the ISS on behalf of the space agency.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the program’s most successful member to date, conducted its first crewed launch to the ISS in May 2020 using its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
It has conducted a total of nine crewed launches – and will do several more next as part of the program – while rival Boeing lags behind.
Boeing’s first crewed launch was initially scheduled to take place in 2017, but several delays resulted in the mission being launched multiple times.
EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS 400 MILES ABOVE EARTH
The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory located 400 km above Earth.
Since November 2000, it has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts.
Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and the European Space Agency ESA have also sent astronauts.
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expanded with several new modules and system upgrades
Research aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low gravity or oxygen.
ISS studies have explored human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The US space agency NASA spends approximately $3 billion a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners including Europe, Russia and Japan.
So far, 244 people from 19 countries have visited the station, including eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.
There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station after 2025, when it is thought that part of the original structure will reach the end of its life.
Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around that time, while Axiom Space, a private company, plans to simultaneously send its own modules to the station for purely commercial use.
NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, which would also include a base on the surface.
