NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick recently captured a gorgeous view of green auroras shining behind the Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz spacecraft can be seen hanging from the station in a stream of aurora. Auroras are beautiful light displays caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with Earth’s atmosphere.
When these particles hit gases like oxygen and nitrogen, they excite the molecules, creating light in various colours. Dominick took this photo during Expedition 71 on August 2, 2024. He shared that recent solar activity pushed the aurora closer to the ISS.
In the photo, the Soyuz is illuminated in light blue from the sun behind the camera and in front of the space station that is just about to rise. Dominick also included his camera settings: 1/4s, f1.4, 50mm, ISO 6400.
Dominick explained that the image was taken with the sun visible behind the camera, which allowed a little bit of light to illuminate the Soyuz without washing out the aurora. Auroras on Earth are caused by charged particles from the sun hitting molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, exciting them to higher energy levels and emitting light. Different molecules emit different colours, with green coming from excited oxygen.
Dominick, an astronaut with SpaceX's Crew-8 mission that arrived at the ISS in March, has taken many time-lapse photos from the ISS. These include views of Boeing's Starliner capsule, his own SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, meteors, and other auroral shows enhanced by the sun’s ongoing peak in the 11-year solar activity cycle..
