Imagine seeing the lights of cities spreading around the Nile Delta and then in less than an hour gazing down on Mount Everest. The astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are among the lucky few who will have this humbling, once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing the beauty of Earth from space.
The ISS doesn’t just offer spectacular and countless views of the natural and man-made landscapes of our planet. It also immerses its residents into the Earth’s space environment and reveals how dynamic its atmosphere is, from its lower layers to its protective magnetic shield, constantly swept by the solar wind.
The best views are seen from the Cupola, an observation deck module attached to the ISS in 2010 and comprising seven windows. So, what are the amazing sights that you can see from the space station?
1. Storms and lightning
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When the ISS orbits over a sea of thunderclouds, it’s not rare for astronauts to witness an impressive amount of lightning. What is unusual, however, is seeing lightning sprites, which were observed on August 10th by astronauts aboard the space station.
Sprites are electrical discharges, similar to thunder lights. However, instead of occurring in the lower layer of Earth’s atmosphere, these very fast, red-coloured discharges (due to the excited nitrogen at this altitude) occur much higher up and are as such difficult to observe from the ground.
2. Sunrises and sunsets
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With the ISS orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, astronauts can see the Sun rise and set around 16 times every 24 hours. The dramatic views from the station display a rainbow-like horizon as the Sun appears and disappears beyond the horizon.
The changes in colour are due to the angle of the solar rays and their scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere. If similar jaw-dropping views can be seen from Earth, seeing our mother planet lit up in the rising Sun certainly adds to the intensity of the picture.
3. Stars and the Milky Way
From the ground, atmospheric conditions and light pollution affect our ability to see stars and other celestial bodies. As light travels through layers of hot and cold air, the bending of its rays render a flickering image of these distant objects, while atmospheric particles such as dust prevent from seeing fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies. The lack of an atmosphere at the orbiting altitude of the ISS allows the residents on the space station to see the stars, the Milky Way and other astronomical features with much greater clarity than is possible on Earth.