Posted:

November 9, 2021 09:19 GMT

NASA explains the phenomenon of illumination: “We observe a billion individual collisions that illuminate the Earth’s magnetic field lines.”

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has shared images of an auroral display dominated by A green radioactive ring with light shards in it emitted by the curvature of our planet.

The images, captured during the final days of her orbiting mission to the International Space Station, capture the moment a solar flare generates the stunning aurora borealis.

“We met with The strongest aurora borealis in the entire expedition, over North America and Canada. Incredible peaks higher than our orbit as we fly just above the center of the ring, fast waves and pulsations everywhere,” the ESA astronaut wrote at his site, along with gorgeous images of the green glow.

The aurora borealis are generated in the Earth’s atmosphere when magnetized plasma particles emitted from the sun collide with the Earth’s magnetic field. It is the reaction that provides the atoms with additional energy that is released in the form of a burst of light. “When we see the brightness of the aurora borealis, we notice a billion individual collisions that illuminate Earth’s magnetic field lines,” explain at NASA.