‘Far too bright for my camera’: French astronaut Sophie Adenot captures intense aurora dance beneath the space station
Adenot released the images on the 127th day of its mission, which the station recorded as a 1968 orbit. The post was shared on the official channels of ESA and NASA.
Writing about the sighting, Adenot said the aurora was “absolutely spectacular” and added that it “shimmered and danced” beneath the station, extending as far as he could see in all directions.
He said the screen was bright enough to illuminate the station itself in green hues; This was something he described as being separate from all other auroras seen during the mission.
“We’ve seen a few since the start of the mission, but this was on a whole different level; it was way too bright for my usual aurora camera settings,” he wrote.
Adenot also noted that the show drew the entire crew to the station’s windows at the same time, with everyone vying for a good vantage point from which to watch.
The images he shared show vivid green light stretching through Earth’s atmosphere, as seen from the station at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers above the surface. This observation is part of Adenot’s εpsilon mission, a nine-month mission aboard the ISS that begins on February 13, 2026.
Who is Sophie Adenot?
Sophie Adenot was born in France in 1982. He studied engineering at ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, specializing in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics, and completed his Master’s degree in human factors engineering at MIT in 2004.
He joined the French Air Force in 2005 and trained as a helicopter pilot, then graduated with honors from the Empire Test Pilots School in the UK in 2018 as a helicopter test pilot.
During his career, Adenot logged 3,000 flight hours in 22 different helicopter types and served as a search and rescue pilot, formation flight leader and mission captain. He also holds a military parachute licence, light aircraft pilot licence, and glider pilot licence.
He was selected as an ESA astronaut candidate in November 2022. He completed basic training and received his astronaut certificate at ESA’s European Astronaut Center in April 2024, and it was announced that he would take part in his first spaceflight mission the following month.
