What It's Like to See the Aurora From Space

These astronauts, Mike Massimino and Don Pettit, are a bit blasé about the view of the aurora from Earth. "One of the things that we've noticed," Massimino says, "is that when you see something, you get used to it in your daily life." But, he continues, when "you get to space, and you see the same type of phenomenon, it's a completely different experience, it's a completely different perspective, like the Earth's aurora."

I myself haven't quite gotten used to seeing aurorae here on Earth (having never seen them in person), but as Pettit describes them, and with the footage of them showcased in the video above, the impressiveness of that view from space is evident -- even over the Internet, on a computer screen.