Mesmerizing Aurora’s footage from International Space Station

A breathtaking video showing the aurora borealis flying over our planet as viewed by a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut, Kimiya Yui, has captured global attention.

The video, published on Sunday, January 11, was shot on the International Space Station (ISS) and revealed a display of glittering light in green, red, and purple, shining through the top atmosphere of the planet.

Astronaut Kimiya Yui, who is currently on a mission aboard the ISS, posted the footage on X describing the sight as “beautiful.”

“I was happy to have captured it, but above all, imagining everyone smiling with joy upon seeing the footage, I laughed to myself,” he wrote.

In the video, the aurora is shown as the waves of light in the form of curtains somewhere in the background of the Earth, and the inky darkness of space. The breathtaking view is because of the charged particles of the Sun interacting with the magnetic field of the Earth, which usually happens at the remote poles but is rarely observed so vividly from an orbit.

The video by astronaut Yui was distributed among space enthusiasts and viewers all over the world and filled them with awe and respect towards the natural phenomena that could be seen only when one was high above the surface. The orbit of the ISS is approximately 420 km above the Earth’s surface (260 miles), which gives it a privileged position to view the auroras; they are much larger and more active than those that can normally be seen in the atmosphere.

The video of the aura also shows the beauty of our world and the science of human spaceflight, because astronauts record the atmospheric and geophysical phenomena in real time.

Online viewers have responded enthusiastically, with some complimenting the quality and clarity of colours used in the video.

Watch the video: 

おはようございます！
仕事の隙間を狙っての撮影が続いています。
私がまもなく帰還するのを知って、太陽さんが頑張ってくれたのか、とても美しいオーロラを撮影する事が出来ました。
撮影できた事も嬉しかったですが、何より映像を見て皆さんが喜んでくださる様子を思い浮かべ、1人で微笑みました笑。 pic.twitter.com/qQJDpqlq1U

— 油井 亀美也　Kimiya.Yui (@Astro_Kimiya) January 11, 2026

The International Space Station is a project operated jointly by NASA, JAXA, and other foreign partners and remains a scientific laboratory, looking at the Earth, and engaging the masses with images and live TV views of space.

Since the solar activity changes depending on the cycle of the Sun, the frequency and intensity of the aurora will be observed to be more frequent and more intense in the next years, providing people with more chances to see something striking, such as the one that Yui provided.

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