NASA Astronaut Captures Auroras in Crimson and Emerald, Offers View from 262 Miles Up

Photograph credit score: Chris Williams
On January 19, 2026, NASA astronaut Chris Williams took wonderful photographs of an aurora whereas floating excessive above the Mediterranean Sea onboard the Worldwide House Station. The ultimate sight is breathtaking, with blazing inexperienced and pink gentle ribbons arching alongside the Earth’s edge and European metropolis lights glittering like stars beneath, with a view north from the Italian coast to Germany.

Auroras are the consequence of a outstanding interaction between our Solar and the planet. Charged particles originate from the Solar, leading to a stream of photo voltaic wind that’s greater than a mild breeze. When these particles attain Earth, the magnetic subject guides lots of them to the poles. Within the higher environment (60 to 250 miles above floor), particles smash with atoms and molecules.

In the case of the colours we see right here, oxygen takes heart stage. At altitudes starting from 60 to 120 miles above the floor, excited oxygen atoms start to launch power within the type of inexperienced gentle, which is the commonest color seen in an aurora. Increased up, over 180 miles, oxygen begins to emit pink emissions. All of it comes all the way down to how the atoms return to regular after being stimulated within the first place: decrease altitudes have much more collisions, thus the inexperienced wavelength will get the decision whereas the pink wavelength is left behind. Increased up, nonetheless, the pink wavelength really involves life.

Taking all of it in, Williams was capable of seize each the inexperienced and pink in a single shot from the vantage level of the house station, which is 262 miles above. The inexperienced is instantly under the curving horizon, hugging the denser areas of the environment, whereas the pink extends all the best way up into the thinner air. Town lights on the bottom give a surprising distinction to the ethereal show and the black arc of the planet.

For those who’re questioning what’s driving all of this, the reply is house climate. When the Solar turns into lively, whether or not by means of massive coronal ejections or high-speed photo voltaic winds, it throws extra particles our means. When the exercise is excessive, the auroral zones increase and the colours intensify, generally pushing the pink emissions decrease or making them extra shiny. Williams photographed this spectacle throughout a interval of lively photo voltaic exercise, reworking a comparatively typical evening in house right into a once-in-a-lifetime gentle extravaganza.