NASA Astronaut Posts Stunning Time-Lapse Of Auroras From ISS, Internet Calls It 'Incredible'

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has shared a mesmerising time-lapse of auroras captured from the window of the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. The video was posted on October 8, and shows vivid red and green lights flickering around the Earth’s atmosphere. It is a display caused by protons impacting gases in the atmosphere.

Dominick is currently serving onboard the International Space Station (ISS) with SpaceX Crew-8, and to capture this timelapse, he combined thousands of photos taken during several orbital nights. The 11-second-long video provides powerful views of the stunning auroras and shows the second SpaceX Dragon Freedom docked at another ISS port.

The auroras depicted in the video are excited electric charges resulting from the encounter of solar particles and the Earth’s magnetic field. When such particles come into contact with oxygen in the atmosphere, they form red and green while collisions with nitrogen give out blues and purples. This is expected to further intensify as the Sun moves to an active phase of its 11-year solar cycle, which has already resulted in powerful solar flares disrupting communications on Earth.

“Posted a single frame yesterday from a series of 300 or so images taken at an interval of about 1.6 seconds”, Dominick wrote in the caption.

The video succeeded in captivating viewers’ attention in the same manner that auroras have always done.

A user commented, “They are even more beautiful from above.”

Another user said, “Great video. I saw it from North Idaho. Red, green and some pale shafts of light dancing and flashing across the sky.”

“This is INCREDIBLE”, read a comment.

“Nature is amazing!”, said another.

Dominick arrived at the ISS on March 3, on the Crew-8 mission as the commander of the space mission with astronauts Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps as well as cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. They were expected to return to the Earth on October 7; however, their departure has been postponed by Hurricane Milton which is expected to hit Florida. The new date for undocking is now set for October 13.

Crew-8 has faced some postponements due to other missions and weather conditions, making the Crew Dragon spacecraft one of the longest missions. While onboard the ISS, he has been conducting experiments in scientific research and managing low earth orbit operations.