Pretty picture: Fly through the aurora

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2010/04/05 04:37 CDT

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Space Station astronaut Soichi Noguchi is an awesome photographer. This image is going straight into the "Best of 2010" collection.

NASA / Soichi Noguchi

Flying through the aurora

Noguchi took this photo from his berth aboard the International Space Station on April 5, 2010, as the Station flew through Earth's aurora at 28,000 kilometers per hour. A geomagnetic storm was exciting an unusual level of auroral activity at the time. A Russian Progress module is visible docked to the Station in the middle ground. The photo appeared on Noguchi's Twitter feed, followed at the time by 174,000 people.Phil Plait has a little more information on what we can see in the photo.