Astronaut Don Pettit Captures Bright Green Aurora From the International Space Station

Astronaut Don Pettit Captures Bright Green Aurora From the International Space Station Ver esta publicación en Instagram Una publicación compartida por Don Pettit (@astro_pettit) Astronaut Don Pettit recently returned to Earth, having accumulated 590 days in space. At age 70, he is considered NASA's oldest active astronaut, and the third oldest to ever be in orbit. Across his four space missions, Pettit has shown a […] READ: Astronaut Don Pettit Captures Bright Green Aurora From the International Space Station

Art May 8, 2025 0 1 Add to Reading List

Astronaut Don Pettit Captures Bright Green Aurora From the International Space Station

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida por Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)

Astronaut Don Pettit recently returned to Earth, having accumulated 590 days in space. At age 70, he is considered NASA's oldest active astronaut, and the third oldest to ever be in orbit. Across his four space missions, Pettit has shown a knack for orbital astrophotography—that is, images of space shot from orbit aboard the ISS. Just a couple of weeks before flying home, he captured a bright green aurora from his unique perspective.

If you think the view of an aurora from the ground is mesmerizing, imagine seeing it as it glimmers and glides around the curvature of Earth. Pettit's footage, which he posted to social media, shows a green glow over the Southern Hemisphere. “Aurora pass last night while @iss orbit path was between Antartica and Australia,” he captioned his breathtaking view. A different clip, taken closer to the Earth's surface, shows the Aurora Australis as “vaporous turbulence.”

While Pettit was shooting this spectacular footage, astronaut Jannicke Mikkelsen was on the first human spaceflight over Earth’s polar regions aboard the private FRAM2 Space Mission. As such, she got an even rarer view of this phenomenon. Pettit shared that he was excited to see her images too, and Mikkelsen promised to post them after her return home. “These videos are BIG in file size and we look forwards [sic] to sharing them with you post-mission splashdown,” she wrote.

As for Pettit, the images of the Aurora Australis are just some of his many incredible videos and pictures. Earlier this year, he captured comet Atlas C2024-G3, a crescent moon over the horizon, and a star field time exposure featuring Andromeda M31. From time to time, he also looked down on our home planet, snapping images of the Betsiboka River in Madagascar, the Strait of Gibraltar, and Hong Kong at night.

Just before returning home, he posted possibly the most moving of all his photographs—a self-portrait alongside the camera that allowed him to capture all these images. “Tomorrow I once again become an Earthling,” he wrote, bidding goodbye to the ISS. “What an adventure this mission has been.”

To stay up to date with the astronaut, you can follow Don Pettit on Instagram.