Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
Southern Lights and Shuttle Glow
Explanation:
A background of distant stars, sinuous and spiky bands of Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], and the faint glow of charged plasma (ionized atomic gas) surrounding the Space Shuttle Discovery's engines [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] give this photo from the STS-39 mission an eerie, otherworldly look. This image [ http://images.jsc.n…] reflects Discovery's April 1991 mission well - its payload bay (PLB) was filled with instruments designed [ http://images.jsc.n…] to study celestial objects, aurora and atmospheric phenomena, and the low Earth orbit environment around the PLB itself. The aurora [ http://www.geo.mtu.…] seen here are at a height of about 50-80 miles and caused by charged particles in the solar wind [ http://www-spof.gsf…], channeled through the van Allen Radiation Belts [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] which excite atoms of oxygen in the upper atmosphere.
Credit and Copyright:
STS-39 [ http://www.ksc.nasa…] Crew, NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
facet_when:
April 1991
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Johnson Space Center (JSC)
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
Space Shuttle Orbiter
facet_when_year:
1991
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap960506

Southern Lights and Shuttle Glow
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