- Jessica Meir, who is currently carrying out a mission inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule, captured the vivid display over the weekend.
- She posted the spectacular footage on social media, describing her complete amazement at the natural light show.
- Dr Meir noted that this specific light show danced and snaked its way directly underneath the spacecraft, leaving her in absolute awe of the phenomenon.
- Astronauts inside the spacecraft were given a rare and completely unobstructed view of the event while orbiting the planet at thousands of miles per hour.
- The stunning footage has since been widely shared online, offering a unique look at the planet's atmospheric beauty from a perspective that very few humans ever get to experience.
- The southern lights are far more difficult to spot from the ground as they mostly appear over Antarctica and the vast southern oceans.
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is currently aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, where she photographed the breathtaking aurora australis during a solar storm. In her stunning time-lapse video, the green display danced directly beneath her spacecraft after the solar storm sent charged particles toward Earth.1
Meir described her experience, stating she was in absolute awe of the beautiful phenomenon. These dramatic light shows occur when charged particles from the sun collide with upper atmosphere gases, creating vibrant colors in the sky.
While the northern lights are often visible in northern Europe and North America, the southern lights are seldom seen from the ground, as they typically manifest over remote locations like Antarctica and southern oceans.78
In her social media post, Meir shared the footage, expressing her amazement at witnessing such a rare event. The astronauts onboard received a unique, unobstructed view of this elusive natural wonder, providing them with a once-in-a-lifetime perspective on the planet's atmospheric beauty.
“Jessica Meir, aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, captured stunning footage of the southern lights, which are rarely seen from the ground. The video provides a unique perspective on Earth's atmospheric beauty, now widely shared on social media.”
