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The image was taken when the International Space Station was orbiting over the South China Sea, in October last year.
An ISS astronaut captures two strange blue spots on the Earth's atmosphere (PHOTO)
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured a surprising image, in which two unusual bright blue spots are observed simultaneously in the Earth’s atmosphere, Live Science collects this Tuesday.
The photograph was taken on 30 October of last year, by an unidentified crew member of the Expedition 66, while the ISS was orbiting over the South China Sea.
According to the media, in the case of the first light spot that can be seen in the lower part of the image, it is a huge lightning bolt that fell somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand. Although lightning is difficult to see from the ISS, since it is often surrounded by clouds, this particular phenomenon occurred because the lightning struck near a large circular opening in the top of the clouds, causing they will light up. The result was the formation of an impressive luminous ring.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the second spot, which is in the upper right part of the photograph, It was caused by the distortion of the Moon’s light , since it is dispersed in the Earth’s atmosphere in the form of particles. Consequently, a bluish spot is produced with a blurred halo around it.
This phenomenon is similar to what we experience during the day when we see the blue sky, since the Blue wavelengths are very short, making it easier for them to scatter and be visible to the human eye.
Likewise, a series of flashes caused by a network of artificial lights from the regions of Vietnam and the island of Hainan, located in southern China, can be seen. However, these flashes are somewhat obscured, largely by clouds. Finally, an orange halo was also identified at the edge of our planet’s atmosphere, better known as ‘the limb of the Earth’.
A similar event was photographed by the French astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, on October 8, 2021, during his stay on the ISS. On that occasion, the luminous phenomenon was recorded in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, when a large space laboratory was flying over the region of the European continent.
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