“So full of techno-cool and art-cool,” American astronaut Don Pettit wrote in a social media post describing his latest image from the International Space Station (ISS).
The remarkable photo is filled with light from stars and cities, with the trails created by keeping the camera shutter open for an extended period. We can also see the airglow on Earth’s horizon, sunlight glinting off the SpaceX’s distant Starlink satellites, several spacecraft docked at the ISS, and parts of the station itself, too.
“I think these are a blend of both science and art,” Pettit wrote. “There is so much techno-geek stuff to see, or you can simply sit back and think ‘How cool.’”
Star trail from ISS; I think these are a blend of both science and art. There is so much techno-geek stuff to see, or you can simply sit back and think “How cool”.
This one shows atmospheric airglow, yellow-green at 120km and the fainter upper red at 400km, star trails moving in… pic.twitter.com/c58CeJxIgh
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) December 3, 2024
Referring to the image, which was captured from the ISS as it orbited about 250 miles above Earth, Pettit added: “This one shows atmospheric airglow, yellow-green at 120km and the fainter upper red at 400km, star trails moving in arcs on the left and straight lines on the right, Starlink satellites flashing sunlight off their solar panel, the Cygnus cargo vehicle (left), my Soyuz vehicle (center), and the Russian laboratory module MLM (right).”
Pettit, who arrived at the space station in September on his fourth orbital mission, and who at 69 is NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, has earned a reputation over the years for capturing creative imagery from the space-based laboratory. One of his notable shots from recent months shows a crewed SpaceX capsule streaking brightly across the blackness of space as it returned to Earth at the end of the historic Polaris Dawn mission that saw the first-ever privately funded spacewalk. Another stunner by Pettit shows moonlight reflecting off the Amazon basin in South America, with the striking scene prompting Pettit to describe it as looking like “flowing silver snakes.”