Astronaut Don Pettit overlooked beautiful aurora from ISS. An aurora, referred to as polar lights, northern lights, and southern lights, is a natural light display in the Earth’s sky, predominantly seen in the high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind. These disturbances are regularly strong enough to alter the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma. These particles, mainly electrons and protons, precipitate into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere). The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity.
Flying over aurora; intensely green. pic.twitter.com/leUufKFnBB
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) January 6, 2025
Reference: Don Pettit’s Tweet
See earthview photo gallery: LiVEARTH