NASA astronaut Jessica Meir captured a time-lapse video of the Aurora Australis while orbiting the Southern Hemisphere [1, 2].
The footage provides a rare perspective of the Southern Lights, documenting the atmospheric effects of a major solar storm on Earth's magnetic field [4, 5].
Meir recorded the visuals from aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft [3]. The footage shows the lights shimmering over the Indian Ocean near the South Pole [3, 1]. This capture occurred during the SpaceX Crew-12 [2] mission.
While some reports associate the footage with the International Space Station, other records indicate the video was filmed from the Dragon spacecraft [3]. The astronaut shared the time-lapse publicly on May 15, 2026 [1].
The display was the result of a significant solar storm that pushed the auroras further from the poles than usual [4, 5]. By recording the event from orbit, Meir was able to document the scale and intensity of the lights as they moved across the atmosphere [4].
Such orbital observations allow scientists and the public to see the interaction between solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere without the interference of ground-based weather, or light pollution [5]. The video highlights the ethereal nature of the Southern Lights, which are less frequently documented than the Northern Lights due to the smaller landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere [2, 5].
“Jessica Meir captured a time-lapse video of the Aurora Australis while orbiting the Southern Hemisphere.”
The ability to capture high-resolution time-lapse data from orbit during peak solar activity helps researchers visualize the dynamics of geomagnetic storms. Because the Aurora Australis is often harder to observe from the ground than its northern counterpart, these orbital records provide critical visual data on how solar energy distributes across the Southern Hemisphere's magnetic field.
