The moon’s glow meets a multicolored aurora in a new astronaut image from space.
International Space Station (ISS) and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, a veteran photographer of the Expedition 71 crew, captured the moon and auroras from his perch 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.
“The aurora have been amazing the past few days. Great timing for trying out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus,” Dominick said on X, formerly Twitter, in one of the posts. (Cygnus is a cargo spacecraft from Northrop Grumman that arrived Aug. 6).
Related: Astronaut captures gorgeous green aurora shining behind Russian spacecraft docked at ISS (photo)
Dominick and the Expedition 71 crew witnessed powerful auroras in recent days, which happen when the sun‘s charged particles interact with gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. The gas molecules emit light when they become excited to higher energy levels than the norm, with different molecules spurring different colors of light. (Green, for example, results from oxygen.)
Both green and red hues are visible in Dominick’s recent images and video. “The moon makes it way towards the horizon to set amongst red and green aurora,” Dominick wrote in another X post. “Felt so lucky to grab this shot.”
Timelapse of the moon setting into streams of red and green aurora followed by a sunrise lighting up Soyuz with a light blue. The aurora have been amazing the past few days. Great timing for trying out a new lens that recently arrived on Cygnus. 15mm, T1.8, 1/3s exposure,… pic.twitter.com/otFv5pZ6vdAugust 12, 2024
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The red-and-green auroras, tinged with moonlight, are Dominick’s latest photos as part of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission. His visit happens to coincide with a peak in auroral activity, allowing him to capture images of auroral shows backdropped by spacecraft like Boeing’s Starliner, SpaceX Crew Dragon or Russia’s Soyuz.
Dominick said recently that he has obtained as many as 200,000 photos aboard the ISS, during the mission meant to last half a year. Many of these photos were taken in his spare time, although, like all astronauts, he also does photography for Earth observation and ISS maintenance purposes.
