“An aurora under the full moon, what better?” The astronaut takes stunning images of the southern lights from the International Space Station
- Astronaut and aerospace engineer Thomas Pesquet, 43, is currently on the International Space Station
- French astronaut photographed Aurora Australis in a rare bluish hue under moonlight
- The moon was high and very bright. It lit up the clouds creating a very special atmosphere “, explained Pesquet
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These photographs are certainly out of this world.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has captured stunning images of southern lights under the full moon of the International Space Station (ISS).
The aurora, which is usually green with red or purple, appeared to have a rare bluish hue, which only occurs under specific conditions.
Thomas Pesquet captured stunning images of southern lights under the full moon of the International Space Station
The Aurora, which is usually green with red or purple, appeared to have a rare blue hue.
Pesquet, 43, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, explained in a Facebook post: “The moon was high and very bright, it illuminated the clouds creating a very special atmosphere … and made this aurora be polar … almost blue.
‘You ask me what Mother Nature has in store for us for the rest: a yellow boreal or a bright red? A huge rainbow?
The aerospace engineer admitted that he had witnessed several auroras during his current mission, Alpha, which was launched on April 23 this year.
However, he confirmed that this particular vision “came with something extra” thanks to the moon’s glow.
Auroras occur when electrically charged solar particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen particles.
“The moon was high and very bright, it illuminated the clouds creating a very special atmosphere,” said Pesquet, who described the rare phenomenon.
Pesquet added, “An aurora under the full moon, what could be better?”
Auroras occur when electrically charged solar particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen particles.
The natural phenomenon occurs at the north and south poles, that is, people at very high or very low latitudes are more likely to observe one.
Northern auroras – often known as “northern lights” – are called Aurora Borealis, meaning “northern dawn.”
The southern lights are called Aurora Australis; from the Latin term meaning southern, which by the way, is how Australia got its name.
Aurora Australis is best seen from Antarctica, Tasmania and the southern coast of the continent.
This is not the first time Pesquet has sent fascinating photographs from the ISS. Earlier this year he shared stunning images of Uluru, Australia, from his perch in space.
He is one of seven astronauts currently conducting research at the space station, which is a $ 100,000 million (£ 80 billion) science and engineering laboratory orbiting about 400 kilometers from Earth.
“An aurora under the full moon, what could be better?” Pesquet wondered, after sharing the photographs from space
Since November 2000, the ISS has had permanent rotating equipment for astronauts and cosmonauts.
This is the second stage of Pesquet at the ISS.
In November 2016 he was launched into space for his Proxima mission for six months as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51.