Time-lapse from ISS shows lightning and mysterious red light

By Trevor Mogg Published September 18, 2024

In his final weeks aboard the space station after six months in orbit, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has shared a gorgeous time-lapse of Earth.

It shows a large part of Asia as the International Space Station (ISS) passed over it at night at an altitude of about 250 miles. The footage, which you can watch below, shows numerous flashes of lightning over a wide area, bright clusters of city lights, and colored lights from fishing boats, which Dominick describes as “one of my favorite things to see at night from the ISS.” But it also shows a bright red light, the source of which Dominick is unsure about.

Timelapse traveling Northeast over Southeast Asia.

In order of appearance:* So many lightning strikes* Colored lights from fishing boats – one of my favorite things to see at night from the ISS* Juxtaposition of city lights on the Korean Peninsula* Red lights North of… pic.twitter.com/vN5VnCKirb

— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 14, 2024

While some commenters suggested the red light could be volcanic activity, others said it may be coming from commercial squid fishing boats that use bright red lights to attract the creatures.

“Those red lights are from an immense fishing fleet east of Hokkaido,” wrote someone else in a post responding to Dominick’s time-lapse. “It shows up in various patterns on night views from the Suomi NPP satellite.”

Dominick has spent some of his six months aboard the space station sharing stunning imagery of not only Earth and beyond, but also of the interior of the orbital outpost itself. But with SpaceX’s Crew-9 arriving at the ISS next month, Dominick and his three fellow Crew-8 members will be returning to Earth in October.

While many will miss marveling at Dominick’s amazing photos and videos, Don Pettit, who arrived at the station just recently, also has a reputation for producing impressive visual content, so space fans are looking forward to seeing what the veteran astronaut shares in the coming months. In fact, just the other day, Pettit captured this remarkable shot of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn spacecraft entering Earth’s atmosphere at high speed after a historic five-day mission.