Peering Down Deep into Earth's Green Aurora | International Space Station

Peering Down Deep into Earth's Green Aurora | International Space Station

Expedition 71/72 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Don Pettit: "Orbiting over wavy green auroras! Moments like these are some of the most surreal in spaceflight. What a view!"

Also known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras. Excited by solar energy outflows, oxygen molecules within planet Earth's atmosphere can produce green aurora colors roughly between 60 to 120 miles (100-200 km) altitude.

Learn more about auroras: 
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/auroras/

NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth on April 19, 2025, concluding a seven-month science mission aboard the International Space Station. Pettit spent 220 days in space, earning him a total of 590 days in space over the course of his four spaceflights. He orbited the Earth 3,520 times, traveling 93.3 million miles in low-Earth orbit.

Follow Expedition 75:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 75 Crew
Station Commander: Jessica Meir
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jack Hathaway, Anil Menon

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Video Credits: NASA/JSC/D. Pettit
Duration: 24 seconds
Release Date: Aug. 22, 2026

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