A Major Solar Storm Lit up US Skies With Auroras — and a NASA Astronaut Captured Them From Space

The Sun burns according to a clockwork that works on an 11-year solar cycle. At the end of every cycle, the radiations flaring in this belly reach its peak, and the Sun starts hurtling aggressive flurries of electrically charged particles towards the Earth. All the particles that the Earth’s magnetic boundary is not able to control intrude into its atmosphere and slam into the gaseous molecules dangling there. Their meeting excites the skies, causing colorful lights, a.k.a. auroras.

On November 11, the seething guts of our home star encountered the peak of its cycle, for it whizzed not one, but two mass ejections of particles, triggering one of the strongest geostorms that lit up the U.S. skies. About 250 miles away from Earth, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman (@zenanaut) captured some stunning shots of these auroral skies, and left Earthlings stunned.

Cardman had never witnessed an aurora from below on Earth. But on this day, as she hovered above the planet, in the orbiting laboratory of the International Space Station, the aurora materialized in front of her craft’s window, like an otherworldly sight, decorating her home planet with a halo of greens, purples, and pinks, while it already glittered with night lights. “I’ve still never seen aurora from below, but up here, it’s a frequent show. Last week’s was especially good,” she wrote in the video’s caption on X.

She called to the viewers to see if they could spot Houston, Florida, while her spacecraft headed out across the Gulf and over South America, where great lighting storms blanketed the skies at sunrise. According to CNN, this episode of Northern Lights reached as far as the South of Florida, covering dozens of states in its surreal glow.

The 50-second footage opens with a segment of planet Earth radiating with a luminous froth of neon green light backdropped by a palette of purples, pinks, and maroons. Enshrouding the planet in a psychedelic hue, the curtains of light quivered and bubbled. Veiled by this dazzling halo, the blue-golden surface of the Earth was embellished with twinkling night lights, making it look as if the entire planet had been coated with a splash of glitter powder. As the craft moved further in the orbit, the lights disappeared, leaving only a dark blue patch of the Earth, dimly lit by faint aurora. Above this scene hovered the silhouettes cast by the shadow of the craft’s solar panel.

In the comments, viewers chimed in to share their personal experiences with these auroras. @RangerH338 said, “This was the brightest I’ve ever seen it in Georgia, USA. Looked red to the naked eye here. We could also see waves moving across the sky on the IR cameras.” Others called it “pure magic,” “spectacular,” “just wow,” and adjectives like these. On Instagram, @tablums said, “I think this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Currently, Cardman is serving as the commander for NASA’s Crew-11 mission that launched on August 1, 2025, aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Once landing on the space station, she took the role of the Flight Engineer, and is now spending her time conducting spacewalks and assorted science experiments, for instance, the effects of spaceflight on the human body, among others.

Cardman is not the only one who captured the striking aurora on her camera. The National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, also recorded some stunning shots of the same Northern Lights outside their office. There, they said, the lights were available to the naked eye. But when it comes to seeing an aurora from space, it cannot be compared with the aurora that Earthlings can capture in their iPhones. Because, as the ancient saying goes, everything is more beautiful when looked at from a distance. 

You can watch the video here.

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