The crew of the International Space Station has provided us with some truly stunning photos of the views of Earth it enjoys from space.
Arguably it all started when Cmdr Chris Hadfield went viral with his tweets from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013, and since then the astronauts onboard have kept us here on Earth well informed of their antics in space.
Earlier this year, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti became something of a household name thanks to her regular space tweets, which also led to us naming her as one of the 7 women in space you need to follow on Twitter.
And now it seems NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has taken on the mantle of keeping us Earthlings informed about what is happening above our heads.
Kelly boarded the ISS in March this year and, along with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, is set to remain onboard the ISS for a year – the longest anyone has spent on the space station.
To keep himself busy Kelly has become a prolific tweeter and, on Sunday (16 August), he tweeted a stunning timelapse of the Northern Lights, as seen from space, which quickly went viral.
Day 141. The chapter of a day ends as it began. #Aurora on a sunrise. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace https://t.co/hZBMs9q0CS
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 15, 2015
However, that is just one of many stunning images Kelly has tweeted recently…
#EarthArt Perfectly Patagonia and wall worthy. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/Ui6RN3oKnB
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 14, 2015
Ships in line thru Suez Canal. We got ships in line too. Progress & #HTV5 headed to @space_station soon! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/I4J92z4K92
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 13, 2015
Day 138. Darkness falls, so #perseid meteors can shine. Enjoy the show! Good night from space_station! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/wGUtbMLuw4
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 12, 2015
Day 135. #MilkyWay. You’re old, dusty, gassy and warped. But beautiful. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/4q09y5CxGJ
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 9, 2015
#EarthArt Everyone likes cloud nine. What’s wrong with the others? They’re all amazing from here. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/yQw8U5d38g
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) August 7, 2015
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Northern Lights image via Shutterstock