The southern counterpart of the northern lights or aurora borealis, known as the aurora australis, is quite something when seen from Earth. But thanks to the International Space Station, we've been able to see how incredible it looks from space.
One of the three astronauts onboard the ISS, Jack Fischer, tweeted a time-lapse video of the phenomenon Sunday. The video was captured on June 25, when the spacecraft was flying south of Australia to the southern Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.
The images were taken as the ISS traveled 250 miles above the surface of the Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour.
An aurora is a natural light display that results from charged particles, which are released from the sun's atmosphere, colliding with particles in atmosphere of Earth. These collisions create streaks of light—most often pink, green, yellow, blue and violet—and occur at the North and South poles of the planet.
The footage shows an incredible spectacle of waves of green light rippling across the Earth's surface. Or as Fischer described it: A "burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce." The sauce is green, he clarified.
People have asked me what a “burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce” is... Well folks, it looks like this…awesome sauce is green. pic.twitter.com/rgTgbdb84f
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) July 23, 2017
The ISS is the largest spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, where most human exploration takes place. There are currently two U.S. astronauts on board—Fischer and Peggy Whitson—and a Russian commander, Fyodor Yurchikhin.
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Conor is a staff writer for Newsweek covering Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, security and conflict.
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