Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha”. The camera is setup to take pictures at regular intervals, the pictures are then played quickly after each other at 12 times faster than normal speed. Thomas shared this video on social media with the caption: “Clouds compete for attention in this aurora timelapse over a blue ocean.”

Aurora are ever-shifting displays of coloured ribbons, curtains, rays and spots mostly visible near Earht’s poles. A northern aurora is called Aurora Borealis, and a southern aurora is called Aurora Australis. This timelapse of an Aurora Australis.

They occur when charged particles streaming from the Sun called the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetic field, resulting in collisions with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. The atoms are excited by these collisions, and emit photons that we see as coloured light. Green is the most common colour seen but red auroras also occur when the oxygen atoms emit a different wavelength typically at higher altitudes.

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency  @CNES .

Follow Thomas: http://bit.ly/ThomasPesquetBlog