Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

NASA shares majestic images of orbital sunrise captured from ISS

Trevor Mogg
By

NASA has shared a set of stunning images showing an orbital sunrise from the International Space Station (ISS).

The four photos, which NASA Johnson posted on its Twitter account on Thursday, March 17, show the sun emerging over Earth’s horizon.

An orbital sunrise viewed from the ISS.
An orbital sunrise captured from the International Space Station. NASA

“The first rays of an orbital sunrise illuminate the Earth’s atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 above the Pacific Ocean south of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula,” NASA Johnson said in comments alongside the same images on its Flickr account.

Recommended Videos

An orbital sunrise is seen from the Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 22, 2022. For more photos, visit https://t.co/UrTZQGt9OI pic.twitter.com/LN3mN8EFOu

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 17, 2022

Related

The impressive photos were captured using one of several professional DSLR cameras aboard the space station, in this case, a Nikon D4 with a 28-300mm lens, though NASA Johnson doesn’t say which astronaut took them.

The ISS takes just 90 minutes to orbit Earth, so there are plenty of sunrises — 16 per day — for the station’s crew to enjoy.

While ISS astronauts spend most of their time working on science experiments, they also like to gaze out of the station’s Cupola module whenever they have a chance.

The seven-window module offers sweeping views of Earth and beyond, and is one of the most popular spots on the station for capturing photos of our planet.

Recent space station inhabitant Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency earned a reputation for snapping stunning Earth shots during his six-month mission. But capturing something special is harder than you might imagine, with busy work schedules and cloud cover two such obstacles to getting great shots.

Indeed, Pesquet had to put in a great deal of effort to give himself the best chance of capturing so-called “keepers.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA releases ‘ghostly cosmic hand’ image for Halloween
NASA's image of a ghostly cosmic hand in deep space.

To mark Halloween, NASA has released a spooky image of what it describes as a "ghostly cosmic hand."

It actually shows MSH 15-52, a cloud of energetic particles that resembles a human hand.

Read more
NASA’s wild plan to launch a rocket from Mars is ‘like something from an amusement park’
An illustration shows a rocket tossed in the air from the surface of Mars and igniting.

When it comes to missions to Mars, NASA has been on a winning streak in recent decades. Its Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix, Curiosity, InSight, and Perseverance missions have all landed successfully on the Martian surface, and we're learning more than ever before about how to land on and explore the planet safely. The agency’s next plans for Mars, however, are a whole new level of ambitious. The Perseverance rover has been collecting samples of Mars dust and rock as it travels around, and the aim of the Mars Sample Return mission is to get those samples back to Earth.

The exact design of the mission has changed since it was first announced, but the current plan involves sending a lander to the surface called the Sample Return Lander (SRL) and then getting Perseverance to drop off the samples at this lander. Those samples will be loaded into a rocket inside the lander called the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will launch into Mars orbit, where it will rendezvous with a spacecraft called the Earth Return Orbiter, which will bring those samples back to Earth.

Read more
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will soon make its first flyby of an asteroid
An artist's concept of the Lucy Mission.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft, which launched in 2021, is on its way to the orbit of Jupiter to study the Trojan asteroids there. It won't arrive there until 2027, but the spacecraft will have the opportunity to do some extra science before then, as it will soon be making a flyby of another asteroid called Dinkinesh. At less than half a mile wide, this small asteroid sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and it will be Lucy's first asteroid flyby.

Artist’s illustration of the Lucy concept. Southwest Research Institute

Read more