Jonny Kim, a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station, shared a time-lapse of several colorful auroras on Earth. The images went viral on X, formerly Twitter.
Kim is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and traveled to the station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as a flight engineer for Expedition 73. He asked for help from his crewmate Nichole Ayers, known for taking incredible photos in space.
I love sunrises in space just as much as I do on Earth.
Just look at the cloud heights and depth out on the Earth’s limb. pic.twitter.com/HzcXG7wx8O
— Nichole “Vapor” Ayers (@Astro_Ayers) June 10, 2025
The astronaut thanked her in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Thanks to tips from Vapor (Ayers), I managed to capture my first aurora,” he wrote in the caption of the video.
“After seeing the result, I told Nichole that the process [of creating the time-lapse] is like fishing. Set up the camera, the angle, the mount, then adjust the timer and hope you caught something,” the astronaut explained.
Night on the International Space Station lasts only 45 minutes, which corresponds to the time the station spends in Earth’s shadow during each orbit.
The images recorded by astronaut Kim show the sunset and auroras moving over southwest Asia and Australia.
The space station travels at an average speed of 28,000 km/h, completing 16 orbits around Earth per day.
My first time-lapse. Thanks to some instruction and tips from @Astro_Ayers, I caught my first aurora. After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing. Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a… pic.twitter.com/RgEaq50E5p
— Jonny Kim (@JonnyKimUSA) June 6, 2025
Photos: X @JonnyKimUSA This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
