Jessica Meir Films Southern Lights From SpaceX Dragon as Solar Wind Ignites Aurora Over Antarctica
Updated
Updated · Good News Network · Jun 18
Jessica Meir Films Southern Lights From SpaceX Dragon as Solar Wind Ignites Aurora Over Antarctica
3 articles · Updated · Good News Network · Jun 18
Summary
Jessica Meir posted a timelapse from SpaceX Dragon showing the aurora australis snaking directly beneath the capsule above Antarctica and the South Pole.
A recent solar event drove charged particles into Earth’s magnetosphere, where they concentrated near the magnetic poles and lit oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere.
Meir, on an 8-month ISS mission since February, said the display differed from earlier auroras she had seen because it moved directly below the spacecraft.
The video follows June 5 images of the same southern aurora during heightened space weather, when Meir and NASA astronaut Chris Williams had sheltered in Dragon during an ISS air-leak response.