It was an occasion of deja vu. Scott Kelly on the International Space Station tweeted: Day 87. The red curtain of an #aurora closes on another day. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace.
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He captured photographs and video of auroras from the ISS on June 22.
The dancing lights of the aurora provided spectacular views on the ground, but also captured the imagination of scientists who studied incoming energy and particles from the sun.
Aurora are one effect of such energetic particles, which can speed out from the Sun in a steady stream called the solar wind due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs. But, I had interviewed Canadian Astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield years ago.
He told my radio listeners of travelling south over the lights of Perth and asking for the ISS lights to be dimmed, and there beneath his feet was the Aurora Australis.
It seems hard to imagine travelling at 25,000km/h and beneath your feet are the dancing particles ejected from a broiling Sun.
The charged particles striking our Earth’s magnetic shield, concentrate at the poles and interact. A stunning display made all the more memorable by the place and setting.
So I know how Scott Kelly feels as he stares transfixed out of the viewing cupola window as the space station hurtles over Capetown. Chris Hadfield told me what it’s like.
Historic flight
The plane has a wingspan of 236 feet (72 metres), and weighs only 2300 kilograms, or about the same as a car.
The aircraft’s wings are covered with 17,000 solar cells that power the plane’s onboard systems. The aircraft, known as Solar Impulse 2, is designed to fly day and night without using any fuel.
Sci-Tech editor Denise Chow reported the plane took off from Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, and will circumnavigate the globe.
At the controls, Andre the pilot will venture into the unknown.
The plane is heading from Nagoya to Hawaii. This latest flight stage over the trackless Pacific Ocean is challenging, particularly given will take 120 hours on solar power only.
Amazing technology will also be at work as the explorer New Horizons closes on the dwarf
planet Pluto for a revealing fly by on July 15.