The circular blue light is a “transient glowing event” seen from the International Space Station in September 2021.
European Space Agency / NASA – T. Biscuits
A “temporary glowing event” sounds like a euphemism for a ghost, but is actually a beautiful phenomenon that can sometimes be seen from the International Space Station. European Space Agency astronaut and current resident of the International Space Station, Thomas Pesquet, shares a vision of a subtle blue light radiating over Europe.
Temporary flare events are caused by lightning in the upper atmosphere. This happened in early September and Pesquet tweeted about this weekHe described it as “a very rare event”.
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The International Space Station is ideally placed to study the colorful events, which are described using a series of fictional names, including elves, goblins, and giants. Photographers with sharp eyes can catch it from the ground, like This amazing sight of red goblins shared in 2017.
“The interesting thing about this lightning bolt is that only a few decades ago it was seen by pilots and scientists weren’t sure that it actually existed.” Pesquet said on Flickr. Fast forward a few years and we can confirm that elves and orcs are very real and can affect our climate too!
The Pesquet image represents one frame of the time interval taken from the station. The image would be beautiful only for the way the Earth curves and the European twinkling light appears below. The fleeting luminous events captured at his best moments take him to the next level.
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