The photo of an astronaut reveals Earth in a way never seen before.
The oldest active astronaut at NASA has shared an image captured from the space station that showcases Earth in a very unique way.
Don Pettit, a NASA astronaut known for his skill in space photography, has once again dazzled with his latest image of Earth shared on social media. This photograph, captured from the International Space Station (ISS), showcases the planet as a glow of moving lights, achieved through long exposures that register illuminated cities in the darkness.
One of the notable aspects of this image is that it appears to be the first photograph from the ISS that captures both a sunset and a sunrise in a single frame. In addition, circular trails of stars can be observed above Earth, along with lightning and auroras, which highlights the visual richness of the composition.
Pettit, who is 69 years old and NASA's longest-serving astronaut, detailed that the shot was taken using a Nikon Z9 camera and a 15mm Arri-Zeiss wide-angle lens. He kept the shutter open for 30 seconds, creating exposures that, when processed in Photoshop, resulted in an effect equivalent to a continuous exposure of 30 minutes.
In his post, the astronaut mentioned, "I hadn’t been able to capture this before, but our new wide-aperture lenses are allowing observations that weren’t possible before." The combination of the ISS's orbital rotation and its movement has enabled these unique images to be captured, where the view of Earth blends with atmospheric events such as the brilliance of the aurora and the atmospheric glow in green and red tones.
Recently, Pettit had made headlines for another stunning image showing the Polaris Dawn crew rapidly returning to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at the conclusion of a historic mission. He has also shared other images of Earth that appear more like works of art than conventional photographs.
