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The aerial glow covers the Earth with an orange glow. NASA has released a photo of a rare orange glow. The photo was taken by astronauts aboard the ISS while she was floating over Australia last month. ( NASA )
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have captured a rare aerial glow around the Earth. Instead of the usual purple and green, the atmosphere has an orange hue.
The ISS captures the rare orange airglow
The photo was taken last month while the orbital outpost was about 250 miles above the Australian mainland. The orange glow has enveloped the upper atmosphere when it reacts to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
An airglow is produced by the same mechanisms behind the auroras. This happens when molecules in the upper atmosphere, mainly nitrogen and oxygen, are over energized by the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which releases them from energy. The result is an amazing display of light in the sky.
However, as auroras form around the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres, solar radiation envelops the entire planet in a bubble of light. Aerial light is also difficult to detect from the ground, but is visible from space at night.
Beautiful dawn, the breath of our atmosphere and the crater Manicouagan in northeastern Quebec. Amazing shot of the @Space station https://t.co/zNicVXmMAJ#space #iss #Canada #crater Quebec # pic.twitter.com/ggLEpZlBIB – Jesse Rogerson (@jesserogerson) May 31, 2018
The aerial light around the Earth is usually green in color with hints of yellow and purple; the orange cast is a rare show. In 2016, observers were even able to capture a photo of a rainbow aerial glow taken atop a mountain in the group of Azorean islands, near the coast of Portugal.
NASA then explained that the multicolored hue of the burst of air was caused by atoms of sodium and oxygen in the upper atmosphere. An approaching storm allowed observers to see the glow of the rainbow and take a picture of the surface of the Earth.
ICON OF NASA
NASA will send a spacecraft that will make close observation of light in the upper atmosphere. The mission, called the Ionospheric Connections Explorer or ICON, will help scientists understand the point where the atmosphere interacts with the space weather.
ICON was originally scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday, November 7th at 3 am aboard the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. However, the engineers "encountered an anomaly" that delayed the launch. No new launch date has been set so far.
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