Todays pic is a spectacular view of an aurora, seen from a perspective that, I would predict, most of us will never see in person; unless space tourism suddenly becomes readily available at cheap prices.
Aurora From Space
What do auroras look like from space? From the ground, auroras dance high above clouds, frequently causing spectacular displays. The International Space Station (ISS) orbits just at the same height as many auroras, though. Therefore, sometimes it flies over them, but also sometimes it flies right through. The auroral electron and proton streams are too thin to be a danger to the ISS, just as clouds pose little danger to airplanes. ISS Science Officer Don Pettit captured a green aurora, pictured above in a digitally sharpened image. From orbit, Dr. Pettit reports, changing auroras can appear to crawl around like giant green amoebas. Far below, on planet Earth, the Manicouagan Impact Crater can be seen in northern Canada.
Credit: Don Pettit, ISS Expedition 6, NASA
A larger versions of this pic can be found here, this is a 712K Jpeg image.Todays larger image is courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, the page the image was requested from can be found here.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
08th Apr 03
03rd Apr 03
30th Mar 03
28th Mar 03
26th Mar 03
22nd Mar 03
21st Mar 03
Aurora From Space
What do auroras look like from space? From the ground, auroras dance high above clouds, frequently causing spectacular displays. The International Space Station (ISS) orbits just at the same height as many auroras, though. Therefore, sometimes it flies over them, but also sometimes it flies right through. The auroral electron and proton streams are too thin to be a danger to the ISS, just as clouds pose little danger to airplanes. ISS Science Officer Don Pettit captured a green aurora, pictured above in a digitally sharpened image. From orbit, Dr. Pettit reports, changing auroras can appear to crawl around like giant green amoebas. Far below, on planet Earth, the Manicouagan Impact Crater can be seen in northern Canada.
Credit: Don Pettit, ISS Expedition 6, NASA
A larger versions of this pic can be found here, this is a 712K Jpeg image.Todays larger image is courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, the page the image was requested from can be found here.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
08th Apr 03
03rd Apr 03
30th Mar 03
28th Mar 03
26th Mar 03
22nd Mar 03
21st Mar 03
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