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Watch as time-lapse video captures solar arrays reflecting auroras, city lights from space

​​​​​​​View Date:2024-12-23 16:36:36

Stunning footage taken from the International Space Station captured the reflection of auroras and city lights from planet Earth.

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick posted the time-lapse video on X on Sunday showing the wave of aligned reflections ahead of sunrise. He also captured the main belt of the Milky Way in the distance, something he aimed to do once the moon could not be seen during the night portions of the station's orbit.

"The solar array light reflections were so mind blowing that I stayed up till 1AM to shoot a few more sunrises. Luckily we get sunrises every 90 minutes," Dominick wrote.

Dominick explained the procedures that went into capturing the "dance" of the array reflections, including setting up multiple time-lapse videos to find the right lighting.

He said a team scanned thousands of still images, taken every 0.5 seconds, for the most compelling ones to piece together − a tedious yet essential process as he added that a "still image does not fully capture it."

Watch time-lapse solar arrays reflecting auroras, city lights

Video seemingly shows meteor exploding in atmosphere

In a separate time-lapse videos posted on X on Tuesday, Dominick showed what appears to be a meteor explosion, also known as a bolide.

Slowed down to one frame per second, the clip shows something bright streaking and exploding until it's no longer visible.

He explained that he set up the time-lapse over northern Africa amid dark conditions with lightning in an effort to capture the Milky Way Core.

"I was greedy because I wanted the Milky Way Core. When I went to review the shots afterwards I found the bolide," he wrote. "If you know about these type of meteors please chime in. I am curious to know more."

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