The beauty of the polar auroras captured from the International Space Station

From the Earth's surface and with a clear sky, the night sky is a beautiful spectacle filled with stars and planets.

Photographing the Milky Way from locations with varying levels of light pollution
Sedna, the mysterious reddish world that takes more than 11,400 years to orbit the Sun

For the few people who have been lucky enough to reach the International Space Station (ISS), the spectacle is on Earth itself, with its colorful surface surrounded by clouds, storms, hurricanes and also by beautiful and mysterious atmospheric lights that have been documented since Antiquity.

Polar auroras (northern lights or aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere and southern lights or aurora australis in the southern hemisphere) are luminescences generated by solar particles colliding with the Earth's magnetosphere, the great magnetic shield that protects our beloved planet from solar radiation and cosmic rays.

The best places to observe these lights are those located near the polar circles. Auroras are usually green and yellow, but they can also be blue, purple, orange, and red, depending on various factors. Many myths about dragons originate from or are heavily influenced by these lights, as this was how many people in ancient times explained the auroras.

The International Space Station is an excellent place to observe the auroras. NASA's website contains a lot of photographs taken from the Cupola of the ISS, manufactured by the European Space Agency (ESA) and taken to that space station on February 8, 2010 by the space shuttle Endeavour.

This Monday, Seán Doran published a beautiful video today showing images of the polar auroras captured from the ISS by astronaut Donald Pettit, of Expedition 73, launched on April 19, 2025, and which will conclude in a few days. Titled "ISS - Moonlight Aurora", it consists of 1,600 photographs that have been remastered and reprogrammed:
"Visuals are enhanced by applying a denoising algorithm, correcting exposure offsets across the time-lapse and adjusting contrast, brightness and color grade. Visual artifacts that detract from the desired outcome are repaired", explains Doran. The result is wonderful:

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Main photo: Seán Doran / NASA.