Aurora Australis as Seen from Orbit

Three years ago, Miss Cellania posted a picture of the Aurora Australis — the Southern Lights — as seen from the IMAGE spacecraft. The lovely photo above of the same phenomenon was taken on May 29 from the International Space Station. In Popular Science, Clay Dillow writes:

This particular aurora is unique in the sense that it was spotted fairly far away from the South Pole over the southern Indian Ocean, likely as a result of a large ejection of energy that burst from the sun on May 24. The photographer is looking south toward Antarctica, though you can’t see the southernmost continent in the photograph. The ISS orbits at around 220 miles, while the aurora was located somewhere in the ionosphere between 60 and 190 miles above the planet’s surface.

Link via Popular Science | Photo: NASA