NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon have captured breathtaking images of star, city, and satellite trails from the International Space Station. Using long-exposure photography, they documented these stunning views, offering a unique perspective from space.
Anil Menon shared insights into the images, highlighting the dramatic differences between them. "The yellow gold happened over India where the city lights lit up Earth on these compiled 15-second exposures, " he explained. "The red streak is closer to Vietnam where the fishing boats stand out in the ocean."
Jessica Meir also shared her experience online, describing the process of capturing the images. She used a Nikon Z9 camera with a 15mm lens from the Dragon window of the space station. "Star and city trails with aurora. I shot this long exposure (30s) series, " she noted. "An array of satellites appears toward the end (above horizon at left of screen), and the Moon rises, evoking our NASA Artemis ambitions." She credited Menon for his programming skills, which allowed the images to be stacked, enhancing the visibility of the trails.
The technique of long-exposure photography is essential for capturing dim light over extended periods. As satellites move across the sky, they create trails by reflecting sunlight, which appears as streaks in the images.
Recent Lunar Discovery
In a separate development, scientists have uncovered a massive crater on the moon, larger than the Roman Colosseum. This crater, formed by a powerful impact two years ago, went initially undetected. Measuring approximately 728 feet across and up to 141 feet deep, it is the largest known impact crater in the solar system carved out in recent times.
Researchers estimate that such a large-scale event occurs only once every 132 years, making this discovery a significant find as NASA plans to establish a base on the moon. "This event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation, " scientists noted in studies published in the journal Science Advances.
The crater was spotted by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on the moon's near side in May 2024, shortly after it was formed by a fragment of an asteroid or comet. The impact escaped real-time detection by telescopes both on Earth and in space. It wasn't until August 2025 that LRO's wide-angle images were identified in the data, with more detailed pictures gathered last fall, confirming the discovery early this year.
