Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, has released a time-lapse film showing the southern lights (aurora australis) as seen from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Watch it here on this short video from the Guardian's website. The lights, and their northern counterpart, the aurora borealis, appear near the poles because Earth's magnetic field channels charged particles from the sun toward those regions, where they collide with the atmosphere and create shimmering curtains of colour. "As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show. I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon," Meir wrote on social media.
What causes the “awesome” aurora australis?
