Stunning Sunrise and Aurora, As Seen from the Space Station

By Nancy Atkinson - June 20, 2010 at 11:30 AM UTC | Space Exploration
iss-sunrise.jpg

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Expedition 23 astronaut

Soichi Noguchi

took and shared so many amazing images during his 6-month stay on board the International Space Station, and I was a little worried that his return to Earth would result in a bit of a let-down in the space imaging department. I now see I had nothing to fear:

Three new members of the Expedition 24 crew

arrived at the ISS late last week and Doug Wheelock seems to have filled Soichi's shoes (or socks, since they don't wear shoes on the ISS) quite nicely. He posted two new images today on

his Twitpic page

that are nothing short of stunning. This image, above of an orbital sunrise provides a great look at the ISS bathed in "morning" light.

"A stunning sunrise aboard the International Space Station, as seen from the Russian MRM1 Module. We're blessed with 16 sunrises each day!" Wheelock, a.k.a

Astro_Wheels

wrote.

See below for an

aurora

he captured over the South Pole.

[caption id="attachment_66918" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="An aurora seen over the South Pole, from the ISS. Credit: Doug Wheelock, NASA."]

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"A breath-taking masterpiece being painted in the sky over the South Pole. 'The Southern Lights'...like brush strokes from the Master's hand..." wrote Wheelock.

Follow Wheelock on Twitter

to get the latest images he takes during his Expedition.

A recent image of a sunset taken from the ISS, is also incredibly beautiful. It wasn't taken by Wheelock, but made NASA's Earth Observatory's website "Image of the Day" feature. Marvelous! The NASA page doesn't say which astronaut took the image. Click the image for a larger, non-annotated view.

[caption id="attachment_66919" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Sunset from the ISS shows the different layers of the atmosphere. Credit: NASA"]

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And here's a video I found of an orbital sunrise taken in 2006 on the STS-116 space shuttle mission.

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