Big Pic: Sunrise Over A Dark Earth, As Seen From The ISS
Sunrise over the Aleutians Photo taken by the Expedition 36 crew on the International Space Station Plus, some cool clouds that form only high above the Earth over polar regions Here's what the land of the midnight sun actually looked like at 12:15 pm local time, August 4. Astronauts in the International Space Station snapped this photo as they crossed over the Aleutian Islands. If the foreground of the photo weren't dark, you would see western Alaska in it. Here, the sun is just about to rise over the Aleutians. Above the sun are noctilucent clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds. Noctilucent clouds appear 47 to 56 miles (75 to 90 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth, which is five to six times higher than the altitudes at which rainclouds form. See the orange line at the horizon on the left part of the photo? That's the layer in the...