The pulsing and vibrant green lights dazzle and sway over the Earth, seemingly to their own beat.
The one-minute long scene, recorded from the International Space Station on Saturday by the NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, are the southern lights, known also as an aurora.
Ms. Meir, the commander of the Crew-12 mission to orbit, captured the time-lapse footage aboard Crew Dragon, a SpaceX capsule used by NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the I.S.S.
“As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show,” she shared on social media on Sunday. “I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon.”
The southern lights, known also as aurora australis, take place in the Southern Hemisphere. They are the counterpart to the northern lights, or aurora borealis, in the Northern Hemisphere.
The lights occur when energetic particles shed by the sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field.
Ms. Meir said “the spectacular southern aurora” she recorded was “a result of a recent solar event.”
Other worlds in the solar system have their own auroras, including Neptune, the moons of Jupiter and Mars.
As it races around the Earth 16 times per day, the International Space Station and its crew captures views of the Earth, including these and other ethereal displays. Last month, Ms. Meir captured scenes of lightning storms covering Africa.
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