The luminous green curtains flicker and sway across the planet, moving to their own rhythm.
A one‑minute timelapse captured from the International Space Station on Saturday by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shows the southern lights, or aurora australis.
Meir, commander of the Crew‑12 orbital mission, recorded the timelapse aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the capsule NASA uses to transport astronauts to and from the ISS.
“Unlike earlier auroras I’ve witnessed, this one moved and twisted directly beneath us, delivering a spectacular display,” she shared on social media on Sunday. “I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon.”
The southern lights, or aurora australis, occur in the Southern Hemisphere and mirror the aurora borealis that appears in the north.
These displays arise when charged particles from the Sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field.
Meir noted that the “spectacular southern aurora” she captured resulted from a recent solar event.
Other worlds in the solar system also exhibit auroras, such as Neptune and the moons of Jupiter and Mars.
Orbiting Earth 16 times daily, the ISS and its crew regularly observe such ethereal phenomena. Last month, Meir captured scenes of lightning storms that covered Africa.