Aurora From Orbit September 17, 2011

As we all know, an aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude like Arctic and Antarctic regions, caused by the collision of energetically charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.

This gorgeous view of the aurora was taken from the International Space Station as it crossed over the southern Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011. The sped-up movie spans the time period from 12:22 to 12:45 PM ET.