An Image from Space That Has Everything

Astronaut Don Pettit (previously at Neatorama) took this image on January 11 from the International Space Station (ISS), or more specifically, from a window of the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle docked to it. They are both 254 miles above the earth. Pettit is an avid space photographer and a talented educator as well as an astronaut. In this picture, he was focusing on deep space, so the city lights of earth rotating below at night show up as a series of streaks. The closer stars are pinpoints of light, while the further stars illustrate why our galaxy is called the Milky Way. The horizontal streaks are Starlink satellites. The bright bands on the horizon are the sun about to rise. You can also see zodiacal light and emissions from the ISS. All this in one photo that Pettit posted to X (formerly Twitter), therefore completing an Elon Musk trifecta. -via Ars Technica

(Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit)