The International Space Station has shared photos of the aurora borealis from NASA that are breathtakingly beautiful. (NASA)
People may already find the gorgeous aurora borealis beautiful when viewed from the ground, but the International Space Station (ISS) recently shared photos of the aurora borealis taken from space that look even more beautiful. The dazzling green lights appear over the vast surface of the Earth, and are mirrored by golden lights on the ground and distant starlight, as if in a mega light show.
The International Space Station shared four beautiful photos of the aurora borealis over the Earth’s surface on Twitter on Jan. 24. The photos are from a NASA web album on Flickr.
As you can see from these photos, the very distinctive green aurora appears between city lights and twinkling starlight. The aurora and lights are brightest in the top right photo.
That photo was taken by the International Space Station as it orbited over Romania. The lights in the photo are from the cities of Sweden and Finland, and the black area between the two Nordic countries is the Baltic Sea.
Auroras are usually seen close to the North and South Poles. Those that appear near the North Pole are called Northern Lights, and those that appear near the South Pole are called Southern Lights. Auroras are seen more clearly at night, but they are actually caused by the sun.
NASA explains that when a solar storm comes toward Earth, some energy and tiny particles descend below the magnetic lines of the Earth’s magnetic field at the North or South Pole and enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
These particles interact with gas molecules in the upper layers of the atmosphere, causing the gas molecules to release photons, which in turn produce beautiful auroras. If these particles touch oxygen, they emit green and red auroras. If the interaction occurs with nitrogen, the aurora appears blue and purple.
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