It’s not everyday that you see Earth from space, much less at night with dazzling blue blobs. An International Space Station (ISS) astronaut captured this image while orbiting over Southeast Asia, overlooking the Vietnamese coast and Thailand. We see the circular shape of Hainan Island, which sits about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from mainland China.
The dazzling blue blob is actually just a bright lightning strike over the Gulf of Thailand, while the other more faint blue sphere shows the Moon appearing just above Earth’s limb on the upper right edge. You also catch a glimpse of fishing fleets seen near Vietnam’s coast as they illuminate the South China Sea. Whey ISS astronauts aren’t conducting experiments or taking photographs, they’re probably having pizza parties.
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In several parts of the image, storm clouds blur the white- and orange-hued city lights. Thailand’s landscape is illuminated by the lights of Ubon Ratchathani, Amnat Charoen, and Yasothon, and the network of highways that connects the cities. Inland from Vietnam’s coast, a strip of darkness includes less-populated areas of southern Laos,” said NASA.
