Northern Lights show surprises NASA astronaut on ISS
A Nasa astronaut on the International Space Station was recently surprised by a beautiful display of the Northern Lights while trying to photograph active storms on Earth.
Astronaut Nichole Ayers shared the video above showing aurora lights dancing over the Earth's poles on May 23.
"The Aurora showed up this last weekend when I wasn't expecting it!" Ayers wrote on X. "I was trying to capture the massive storms that went through both North and South America and got a nice surprise."
The astronaut said the aurora lights appeared around sunset over the northern U.S. and Canada. Under the right space weather conditions, people on Earth in those areas could have seen the lights, too.
At the time of the aurora lights, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Geomagnetic Storm Warning with KP levels forecast to reach 6 out of 9.
Vivid Northern Lights are created when energized particles from the Sun interact with oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's magnetic field. During these space weather reactions, different molecules create different colors of light.
Ayers launched to the ISS from Florida in March as part of NASA's Crew-10 mission with SpaceX.
Since arriving at the station this spring, Ayers has enjoyed sharing amazing views of the Earth from space. One of her first time-lapse videos included this display of aurora lights in late April.Original article source: Northern Lights show surprises NASA astronaut on ISS
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