[imagesource: NASA Earth Observatory]

Space has always been a great mystery to many of us.

Since the dawn of our civilisation, we’ve posed philosophical questions like “are there other forms of intelligent life out there?” or more recently, “can we find a hospitable home on another planet?”

Our very own Elon Musk has been hard at work trying to answer the second question. NASA is in the process of answering the first.

Space may be mysterious, but many artistic astronauts have provided us with jaw-dropping imagery of Earth, from the vantage point of the International Space Station.

An awesome photo of Earth made waves on the internet. The image featured two blue ominous orbs, hovering over our planet.

It appears as if extraterrestrials found themselves floating in our atmosphere but in actuality, it is merely a natural phenomenon.

According to Live Science, “the two otherwordly orbs are the result of two unrelated natural phenomena that just happened to occur at the same time.”

Image: NASA Earth Observatory

“The first blob of light, which is visible at the bottom of the image, is a massive lightning strike somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand. Lightning strikes are typically hard to see from the ISS, as they’re usually covered by clouds.” Harry Baker (staff writer) wrote.

Harry continued with the explanation, “But this particular strike occurred next to a large, circular gap in the top of the clouds, which caused the lightning to illuminate the surrounding walls of the cloudy caldera-like structure, creating a striking luminous ring.”

As for the second blue blob seen in the top right of the image:

[It] is the result of warped light from the moon. The orientation of Earth’s natural satellite in relation to the ISS means the light it reflects back from the sun passes straight through the planet’s atmosphere, which transforms it into a bright blue blob with a fuzzy halo. This effect is caused by some of the moonlight scattering off tiny particles in Earth’s atmosphere, according to Earth Observatory.

The stunning snap was taken last year by an unnamed astronaut, who was as of the Expedition 66 crew. The image was taken right around the time when the International Space Station passed over the South China Sea. 

NASA’s Earth Observatory released the image on October 9.

Let’s hope that they continue to share more dazzling imagery from their vault.

[source:livescience]