The Earth looks molten in this stunner of a view from the ISS in January 2022.
NASAHow’s your day going? Got a lot on your plate, huh? I understand. It’s very stressful. Here, have an orbital sunrise. We can share it. There’s plenty of beauty to go around.
On Monday, NASA shared “first rays of an orbital sunrise” as its image of the day. The space agency didn’t go into much detail. It didn’t need to. The image stands on its own as a vision of Earth and space and the start of a new day seen as a blazing curve of orange.
The photo comes from the International Space Station in January, taken as it was orbiting 257 miles (414 kilometers) above the Venezuela coast.
The station is really flying fast up there. Astronauts are treated to roughly 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. The one NASA shared is a moment of quiet, a representation of a new beginning in colors that could have been pulled from a Gerhard Richter abstract.
Most of us will never go to space to see this for ourselves, but we can take a view like this and breathe it in. Think about the people traveling in orbit and the millions who live down below, and embrace the glowing edge of dawn light as a thing of wonder.
