{"id":646622,"date":"2026-08-20T04:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/646622\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:03:12","slug":"what-beats-seeing-eclipses-from-space-try-the-northern-and-southern-lights-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/646622\/","title":{"rendered":"What beats seeing eclipses from space? Try the northern and southern lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Eclipses<\/a> may be wondrous, but nothing beats seeing the northern and southern lights from space.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the word Wednesday from a pair of NASA astronauts<\/a> living aboard the International Space Station for the past six months. <\/p>\n

Astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway told The Associated Press that the space station\u2019s position prevented them from seeing totality during last week\u2019s solar eclipse, but they still enjoyed a partial eclipse. They said they\u2019ll try to catch next week\u2019s lunar eclipse, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re hoping for the best. It should be pretty awesome,\u201d Hathaway said. <\/p>\n

Meir said the best cosmic shows are auroras. The sun is coming off its busy season, making the northern and southern lights more dramatic and brilliant, she noted. <\/p>\n

After one especially large blast of plasma from the sun, \u201cthe green dancing aurora\u201d appeared right beneath them instead of off in the distance near the poles, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like a snake making its way right beneath us and that was a really extraordinary one,\u201d said Meir, the space station’s commander. \u201cYou could see the green light bouncing off the white outside exterior of the space station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meir has also taken special pleasure in whipping up culinary delights in orbit, donning a space cat-adorned apron while sampling some of the station-grown mustard greens and kale. She joined crewmate Anil Menon, wearing a chef’s toque, for his first cooking episode of \u201cChez ISS\u201d this week. <\/p>\n

Arriving last month in a Russian capsule, Menon packed the apron and toque for his more-to-come cooking show. Meir’s luggage included a piccolo: She performed John Philip Sousa’s \u201cThe Stars and Stripes Forever\u201d with the Boston Pops on July 4. Her part was prerecorded in space.<\/p>\n

Meir also took up a fancy scarf and glittery violet bell bottoms, considerably more casual than the dress she flew on her last station trip that saw her take part in the first all-female spacewalk.<\/p>\n

While Hathaway’s culinary and musical talents may be lacking, he said he’s never bored. \u201cThere’s always something to do,\u201d he said, including weekend karaoke nights featuring the guitar and other musical instruments.<\/p>\n

Launched in February, Meir, a marine biologist, and Hathaway, a Navy captain, are due to return to Earth via SpaceX once their replacements arrive next month. The current crew includes three Americans, three Russians and one French astronaut.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Eclipses may be wondrous, but nothing beats seeing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[582,30162,18,3334,19,17,133,451,1224,82,66],"class_list":["post-646622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astronomy","tag-eclipses","tag-eire","tag-general-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-exploration","tag-technology","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117125854414609065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}