Astronaut Jessica Meir captures ‘dancing’ Aurora Australis from SpaceX Dragon capsule

From the SpaceX Dragon capsule high above Earth, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir was left stunned by a rare display of the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, unfolding directly below her.

As Earth’s “blue marble” rotated to reveal its white underbelly over Antarctica, a blast of solar wind ignited the aurora. Meir watched it spread from Antarctica and snake its way across the South Pole.“As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show,” Meir wrote on X. “I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon.”

Auroras occur when charged particles expelled by the Sun strike Earth’s magnetosphere. The particles move to the magnetic poles, energize oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, and create a discharge of energy that turns them into glowing plasma.

Though Earth is constantly bombarded by solar radiation, large bursts like coronal mass ejections cause more dramatic and wider auroras at the north and south poles. The colors reveal which gases are involved and at what altitude, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Green lights come from oxygen at 60 to 180 miles above the surface, while red lights indicate oxygen at higher altitudes.

Meir arrived at the International Space Station in February aboard the Dragon capsule for an 8-month mission. Her experiments focus on human biology and medicine in space, including studies on pneumonia-causing bacteria and how to make IV fluid from scratch.

On June 5th, Meir and NASA astronaut Chris Williams took shelter in the Dragon capsule on NASA’s orders while Roscosmos colleagues worked to find and fix an air leak on their side of the station.