An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured an unusual image of Earth from space.
The image was taken by an unnamed Expedition 66 crew member as the ISS passed over the South China Sea. The photograph was released by NASA's Earth Observatory.
Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
The first spot of light visible belowimages, is a massive lightning strike in the Gulf of Thailand. Lightning strikes are generally difficult to see from the ISS - they are usually hidden by clouds. But this particular event occurred near a large circular rip in the cloud top. This caused the lightning to illuminate the surrounding walls of the cloud structure similar to a caldera, creating a ring of light.
Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
Second blue spot that can be seenin the upper right corner of the image, appeared as a result of the bending of moonlight. The orientation of Earth's natural satellite in relation to the ISS causes the light it reflects from the Sun to pass directly through the planet's atmosphere, turning it into a bright blue spot with a fuzzy halo. According to NASA's Earth Observatory, this effect is caused by some of the moon's light being scattered by tiny particles in Earth's atmosphere.
Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory
Different colors of visible light have differentwavelength, which affects their interaction with atmospheric particles. Blue light has the shortest wavelength and is therefore better scattered, causing the Moon to appear blue in the image. The same effect explains why the sky appears blue during the day: according to NASA, blue wavelengths of sunlight are scattered the most and become more visible to the human eye.
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