ISS Crew Captures Beautiful Image of Green Aurora Over the Indian Ocean
36 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Sometimes you're just at the right place at the right time. Astronauts aboard the ISS experienced just such a moment when they captured this captivating image of a rare aurora australis over the Southern Indian Ocean likely caused by a coronal mass ejection from the sun late last month.
The auroras -- aurora borealis near the North Pole, aurora australis near the South Pole -- are one of the atmosphere's most beautiful phenomena, occurring when energetic ions from the sun collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, temporarily exciting those particles such that they emit light as they return to their normal states. This particular ribbon of ion activity appears green, the result of excited oxygen atoms at wavelengths near 0.558 millionths of a meter. Other wavelengths produce red, blue, or purple hues (you can see a little bit of red left of center).
This particular aurora is unique in the sense that it was spotted fairly far away from the South Pole over the southern Indian Ocean, likely as a result of a large ejection of energy that burst from the sun on May 24. The photographer is looking south toward Antarctica, though you can't see the southernmost continent in the photograph. The ISS orbits at around 220 miles, while the aurora was located somewhere in the ionosphere between 60 and 190 miles above the planet's surface.
[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/ISS023-E-58455_lrg.jpg[/img]
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Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/iss-crew-captures-beautiful-image-green-aurora-over-indian-ocean[/url]
Rate artistic if you think this is awesome :smile:
Woah that looks amazing.
Ooooh - Aaaaah
Nice.
:iia:
Damn that's pretty sweet, but that's a bit odd for the location of the aurora, isn't the magnetic field supposed to channel those particles towards the poles? :ohdear:
[QUOTE=bravehat;23125935]Damn that's pretty sweet, but that's a bit odd for the location of the aurora, isn't the magnetic field supposed to channel those particles towards the poles? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
2012 brother. Joke.
[QUOTE=bravehat;23125935]Damn that's pretty sweet, but that's a bit odd for the location of the aurora, isn't the magnetic field supposed to channel those particles towards the poles? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
ALIENS :psyboom:
[QUOTE=bravehat;23125935]Damn that's pretty sweet, but that's a bit odd for the location of the aurora, isn't the magnetic field supposed to channel those particles towards the poles? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
[quote]This particular aurora is unique in the sense that it was spotted fairly far away from the South Pole over the southern Indian Ocean, likely as a result of a large ejection of energy that burst from the sun on May 24[/quote]
Holy crap, I love space.
1920x1200 plz
[editline]07:30PM[/editline]
[url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/44000/44348/ISS023-E-58455_lrg.jpg]1440x960 for puny baby monitors[/url]
Holy shit, that's awesome.
[img]http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/44000/44348/ISS023-E-58455_lrg.jpg[/img]
It's not 1920x1200 but its cooler big.
I'm thinking that this picture was touched up a bit, in Brightness
Nope, the auroras are that bright.
Woah... it's... it's beautiful!
[QUOTE=bravehat;23125935]Damn that's pretty sweet, but that's a bit odd for the location of the aurora, isn't the magnetic field supposed to channel those particles towards the poles? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Some studies have suggested that the magnetic fields are slowly shifting. Although come to think of it, that's a little extreme for that indeed.
