Earth From Space Pictures: Aurora Borealis Photos Posted By Astronaut
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet took to Twitter Saturday to share his stunning view of the aurora borealis from space. Pesquet’s photo showed the northern lights shining green and blue over a darkened Earth.
“The view at night recently has been simply magnificent,” the astronaut wrote. “Few clouds, intense #aurora. I can’t look away from the windows.”
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Pesquet’s Twitter feed is flooded with similarly breathtaking images of his view from the International Space Station, where he has been stationed since November. The astronaut was sent to the ISS to serve as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51, both part of the European Space Agency’s Proxima mission.
In March, Pesquet completed his second-ever spacewalk alongside NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, which he shared photos of as well. The astronauts spent six hours and 34 minutes outside the space station, upgrading its computer system, checking for leaks in the cooling system, replacing lights and maintaining its robotic hand.
“Moving in space for several hours, while you are confined in a heavy spacesuit that weighs on your back muscles is like rock-climbing while wearing armor,” he wrote in his blog.
Pesquet, 39, has regularly shared photos of his native France from space as the space station passes over, as well as many other spots on Earth and has written about his observations on his ongoing blog.
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“What struck me the most was that our planet shines! It is not something we are aware of, but due to the reflection of the sun on the clouds and blue oceans, Earth is phosphorescent. It is illuminated and absolutely sublime,” he wrote in his first blog post when he arrived at the space station in November. “And all of a sudden you feel very small. Besides cities at night there are not many signs of human life. Amazingly, it is the immensity of nature and oceans that dominates our planet.”
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