The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently made public a stunning image of the “waxing crescent moon” taken by the International Space Station (ISS) on September 30, 2022, as it orbited 267 miles (429 km) above the Atlantic Ocean southwest of South Africa during an orbital sunrise.
The image includes a waxing crescent moon and a beautiful series of colors representing several atmospheric strata. According to NASA, this edge-on perspective of Earth provides us a glimpse inside the layers of our vibrant atmosphere. Above the black limb of the Earth’s surface, at the bottom, lies the troposphere (orange). The air we breathe and the clouds are housed in this layer, which we call our home.
The US space agency also mentioned in their Instagram post that the white stratosphere, 22 miles (35 km) thick, is above it. It has the ozone layer, which shields humans from ultraviolet radiation’s (UV) damaging rays.
The mesosphere and beyond’s brilliant blue eventually fades into space’s gloom. According to NASA, the mesosphere is where meteors burn up during meteor showers because of the large number of gases there. These gases induce friction and generate heat.
A “mysterious cosmic keyhole” was seen in a previous photograph released by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The NGC 1999 reflection nebula, which is 1,350 light-years away from Earth and located in the constellation Orion, was photographed by the telescope, renowned for its groundbreaking findings.
The astounding image depicted a “peculiar portrayal” of the whirling gas and dust clouds. On Friday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released an ethereal image of the nebula.
