Astronautin shows the Northern Lights from space - experience natural miracles up close!

Astronautin shows the Northern Lights from space - experience natural miracles up close!

Vienna, Österreich - On June 6, 2025, the US astronaut Anne McClain shared fascinating shots of breathtaking northern lights. These spectacular pictures were taken from an altitude of about 400 kilometers from the International Space Station (ISS) and were published on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. The arc, which shimmers in green shades above the horizon, is the result of a strong solar storm, which was caused by a sun -ups with a coronal mass outlet (CME) on Friday. McClain, which is on board the ISS during her second mission, expresses her enthusiasm for the play of light and the "dance of the satellites". She also divides the desire to experience the Northern Lights from Earth, and sees this as a supplement to her Bucket List.

Northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, are impressive natural phenomena that are caused by increased solar activities and solar eruptions. According to the physicist Stefan Kraft from the European satellite control center ESOC, the "optically beautiful side of the space weather" appear. These lights appear when plasma, consisting of electrons, protons and nuclei, meets severe elements in particles in the earth's atmosphere. Strong solar events such as CMES can not only cause impressive lighting spectacles, but also represent serious dangers for people and technology.

The dangers of solar storms

Coronal mass stiries can affect the magnetosphere of the earth and even cause massive damage to infrastructure and satellites. Historical events such as the Carrington event from 1859 are examples of the destructive power of the sun, which at that time led to considerable disorders in the telegraph communication at that time. Recent incidents, such as the power failure in Québec in 1989 or GPS failures in Germany in 2003, show how vulnerable our technology is against solar storms. The ESA arranges these risks to constantly research and predict space weather events.

In order to minimize these dangers, the ESA invests over 30 million euros annually in programs to monitor space weather. One of the goals is to enable a warning time of several days for potentially harmful events. The ESA uses satellites such as cluster and Soho and works on a space weather system that is intended to position the new satellite on Lagrange point L5, which is intended to enable improved monitoring of solar activities.

research on solar activity

To better analysis of solar storms, local research projects such as that of the Thuringian State Storage Commerce also contribute. In cooperation with various national and international institutions, the team around Professor Roth examines active regions of the sun surface. For example, the vacuum tower telescope on Tenerife offers high-resolution shots of the sun by depicting large areas of the sun and enables unusual detailed observations. This technology is particularly important to collect precise data about solar storms that contribute to the prediction of space weather events.

The Hellride instrument that analyzes seismic waves on the sun was also installed in order to continuously deepen the understanding of the complex changes in the sun. This information is crucial in order to avoid future failures of harvesting machines and satellites as a result of solar storms, which is of great importance in today's technology -dependent world.

The interaction between the breathtaking northern lights, the potentially dangerous sun events and the ongoing research makes it clear how important the understanding of space weather is and how much it can influence our technology and our daily life.