Universe Today
Woah, is that home to six people in space now some sort of a ghoul? Here is a video of the International Space Station in an odd shade of ... green. And no, it's not because astronauts secretly painted the hull
during their spacewalk this week
.
What you're actually seeing is a green laser shining on the space station as part of a test of next-generation communications technologies. Lasers have been used in successful tests
to the Moon
and
the space station
in the past year, hinting that perhaps there's a faster way to transmit data than over traditional radio.
The clip was filmed at the European Space Agency's optical ground station in Tenerife, Spain, on Oct. 8 as part of a social media event. Below, you can see a shot of the laser in action, aiming at the sky.
More photos are here
.
[caption id="attachment_115387" align="alignnone" width="580"]
A green laser shines out into space at an October 2014 social media event at the European Space Agency's optical ground station in Spain. Credit: Daniel Lopez/IAC[/caption]