NASA astronaut captured the aurora timelapse from space and it's breathtaking

Nature is full of magical experiences that captivate our senses. Take the Northern Lights, for instance. Their alluring ballet of luminescence sways gracefully in the night sky, prompting many to add it to their bucket list of life experiences. While the Aurora Borealis has been gracing the skies beyond the North Pole recently, many were pleased to witness it without having to travel so far. However, we've seen enough images of the phenomenon from the ground. So, when NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick—who goes by @dominickmatthew on X—captured the aurora from space, it was absolutely mind-blowing.

2024 has been a fortunate year for those who love the Northern Lights. It turns out that solar activity will increase over the next few years as we approach the "solar maximum" in our solar cycle, as per Space.com. This, in turn, allows countries away from the Arctic region to witness the magical phenomenon too. On October 8, 2024, Dominick posted a stunning image of the Northern Lights captured from the window of the Dragon Endeavor spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. The vibrant red and green aurora blanketing our planet's atmosphere is a sight that we, as Earth dwellers, cannot fully experience.

This image was one of hundreds of frames captured by Dominick of the Northern Lights from space. As the post garnered over 1 million views in just a couple of weeks, the astronaut shared another remarkable view of the aurora—a timelapse. The 8-second video captured the breathtaking dance of the Northern Lights as the spacecraft orbited Earth at high speed, revealing an unusually vast stretch of red and green lights swirling beautifully. Dominick wrote in the caption, "We shot a couple thousand images yesterday trying to get the settings, lighting, and framing just right across multiple orbital nights because the aurora was amazing due to recent solar activity."

Nearly 300k views poured in and Dominick's expertise in capturing such remarkable high-resolution glimpses was lauded. People couldn't help but marvel at the incredible beauty of nature. "Your vantage point shows how beautiful, dynamic and fascinating our world is! Thank you!" said @martha_dutton. "This feels like you're about to show us the greatest movie of all time," commented @RiChArDofEarth1. "It's like Christmas every day with all that red and green," chimed in @anchajaya1. "Why does an astronaut always have the best seats?" added @koendsn. 

However, this wasn't the first time Dominick had graced his followers with a stunning view of a natural phenomenon. In June, the astronaut was fortunate to spot an extremely rare and eerie occurrence of "red sprites" from the ISS. While capturing a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa, Dominick noticed some bright red lines amidst flashes of white during the thunderstorm. It turns out that these red lines were lightning flashes that occur only during extreme thunderstorms and are characteristically different from normal lightning flashes, as per Space.com. These sprites move up from the clouds and into the atmosphere rather than striking the ground like how lightning normally occurs.