You’ve seen how astronauts celebrate Christmas, now check out this brilliant high-exposure image of Earth’s atmospheric glow as captured from the International Space Station (ISS). Taken on Jan. 21, 2024, the orbital lab was approximately 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean northeast of Papua New Guinea.
If you look closer, the Nauka science module and Prichal docking module can be seen at the left. This glow, also known as airglow, happens when atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, excited by sunlight, emit light to shed their excess energy. Or, the phenomenon can also occur when atoms as well as molecules that have been ionized by sunlight collide with and capture a free electron.
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Since the space station became operational in November 2000, crew members have produced hundreds of thousands of images of the land, oceans, and atmosphere of Earth, and even of the Moon through Crew Earth Observations,” said NASA.
