A new video from an astronaut’s vantage point in space catures a bright green burst over Earth as a meteor exploded in the night sky.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, commander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, shared a new time-lapse of photos taken from the International Space Station as it passed over Cairo, Egypt. While aiming to photograph the Milky Way’s Core, Dominick ended up capturing a bright green fireball that exploded on Monday (Sept. 2) at 8:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT).
The outburst seen in the time-lapse was created by a meteor that entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. Dominick shared the new view in a post on X (formally Twitter) on Sept. 3.
“I showed this to a couple of friends yesterday to see what they thought,” Dominick wrote in his post. “They both thought it was a meteor exploding in the atmosphere — a rather bright one called a bolide.”
I showed this to a couple of friends yesterday to see what they thought. They both thought it was a meteor exploding in the atmosphere – a rather bright one called a bolide. Timelapse is slowed down to one frame per second for you to see it streaking and then exploding. If you… pic.twitter.com/tn2KmWgnoESeptember 3, 2024
Dominick shared two versions of the timelapse. In his initial post, the timelapse was slowed down to one frame per second, offering a more detailed view of the fleeting meteor as it streaked across the sky and then exploded. In the comments, Dominick shared a faster version, in which the meteor appears as only a very brief flash in the top right of the frame.
Given the exceptional brightness of the meteor, it is considered a bolide, which is a large meteor that explodes in Earth’s atmosphere with enough force to create a sonic boom. This type of meteor can last several seconds, or even minutes, and create a bright glow across the sky that outshines the stars and moon.
“I think it is interesting to compare the size of the bolide blast to other objects in view like the Mediterranean, Cairo, or lightning strikes,” Dominick commented.
The timelapse includes 20 individual images taken from inside of the space station’s Cupola module.
“When I went to review the shots afterwards I found the bolide,” Dominick said in his post.
Dominick has been a prolific photographer during his stay aboard the ISS as part of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission. The NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy test pilot has captured auroras, several meteors exploding above Earth and more on camera during his stay on the orbital lab.
