Astronauts Capture Great Views of Mount Etna Eruption

By Nancy Atkinson - March 23, 2017 at 7:46 AM UTC | Planetary Science
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Mount Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it's been spouting off since late February 2017. It spewed lava and gas with a rather big eruption last week, where

10 people were actually injured.

The Expedition 50 crew on board the International Space Station have been able to capture both day and nighttime views of the activity from orbit.

The stunning view, above, was taken on March 17, 2017. The original photo, which you can see on

NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website

is actually a bit hard to make out. But space enthusiast

Riccardo Rossi

from Modena, Italy enhanced the original with color correction and increased the contrast with Photoshop. You can see the

full version of Rossi's enhancements on Flickr.

.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took the image below on March 19, and

shared it on Twitter

, writing, "Mount Etna, in Sicily. The volcano is currently erupting and the molten lava is visible from space, at night! (the red lines on the left)."

[caption id="attachment_134619" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A nighttime view from orbit of Mount Etna, erupting on March 19, 2017, taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The red streaks on the lower left are molten lava. See detail below. Credit: NASA/ESA. [/caption]

This crop shows the glowing lava:

[caption id="attachment_134620" align="aligncenter" width="331"]

A crop of the above image, showing detail of the glowing lava at night from Mount Etna's recent activity. Credit: NASA/ESA. [/caption]

Mount Etna towers above the city of Catania on the island of Sicily. Scientists estimate it has been active for about 500,000 years. The first recorded eruption dates back to 1500 B.C., and it has erupted over 200 times since then.

NASA's

Suomi NPP

satellite also spotted nighttime activity from orbit. The image was acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), using its "day-night band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as gas flares, city lights, and reflected moonlight. In this image, it detected the nighttime glow of molten lava.

[caption id="attachment_134622" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

A view of Sicily and Mount Etna during the dark morning hours of March 16, 2017, taken by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite. Credit: NASA. [/caption]

Further reading:

NASA Image of the Day

NASA Earth Observatory

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com