images

Aurora australis from space

by

Nasa/Novapix

Reference

t-met01-00010

Date

2006-12-11

Aurora australis observed from the STS-39 space shuttle Discovery in May 1991. The payload bay and tail of the space shuttle can be seen on the left hand side of the picture. Auroras are caused when high-energy electrons pour down from the Earth's magnetosphere and collide with atoms.