Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have a front-row seat to some of the most extraordinary sights in the cosmos, but few images manage to capture the vastness of space quite like the latest masterpiece from Don Pettit.

While orbiting 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean, Pettit pointed his camera toward Earth’s horizon just before sunrise. The result? A surreal snapshot of our planet’s thin atmospheric boundary, set against the breathtaking glow of the Milky Way, captured edge-on in all its galactic splendor. The image, which has been compared to previous celestial photography from space, joins a collection of stunning orbital perspectives taken by ISS astronauts. NASA highlighted Pettit’s photo in a recent feature, emphasizing the significance of capturing such cosmic moments from low-Earth orbit.

How the Image Was Captured

Taking an image of the Milky Way from space is no easy task. The ISS orbits Earth at approximately 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h), which means traditional photography techniques need to be adjusted to compensate for motion blur. To achieve this spectacular shot, Pettit used a long-exposure technique and a low-light camera setting, allowing him to bring out the intricate details of the Milky Way’s dense star fields while preserving the motion of Earth below.

The composition of the image is striking for several reasons. Unlike typical pictures of Earth from space—where the planet appears bright blue, with swirling white clouds—Pettit’s photograph gives Earth an unusual mossy green hue. Scientists speculate that this coloration could be an effect of atmospheric scattering, combined with the low-light settings of Pettit’s camera. A thin band of white light is visible just above Earth’s surface, marking the fragile boundary of our planet’s atmosphere before fading into the blackness of space.

One of the most compelling aspects of this image is how it portrays the Milky Way edge-on. The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy spanning roughly 100,000 light-years across. When viewed from Earth, we typically see it as a dense band of stars stretching across the night sky. However, from Pettit’s perspective, the Milky Way appears as a brilliant, elongated structure, revealing its true cosmic scale in a way that ground-based observers rarely experience.

This isn’t the first time Pettit has experimented with astrophotography from space. In December 2024, he shared an image of Earth framed by two satellite galaxies, a photograph that required an innovative technique to reduce motion blur. Pettit, a veteran ISS astronaut and an avid space photographer, built a homemade star-tracking device that allows him to take clear, long-exposure images of celestial objects despite the ISS’s rapid movement. On X (formerly Twitter), he teased that more images like this are on the way, hinting at further cosmic photography projects in the works.

Astronauts in Action: More Than Just Spectators

While breathtaking images like Pettit’s provide a unique cosmic perspective, the crew aboard the ISS remains hard at work, conducting a wide range of scientific experiments, maintenance operations, and extravehicular activities (EVAs). Pettit is part of NASA’s Expedition 72 crew, which includes astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Nick Hague.

Williams and Wilmore have recently made headlines due to their extended stay aboard the ISS, following a delayed return to Earth. The situation became a hot topic when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk suggested that the astronauts were being stranded for political reasons, a claim that was quickly refuted by former ISS commanders and NASA officials. Despite the delay, the astronauts have remained highly productive.

Just one day after Pettit captured his stunning Milky Way image, Williams and Wilmore conducted a 5.5-hour spacewalk, marking a historic milestone. Williams officially became the female astronaut with the most time spent on spacewalks, surpassing 62 hours and 6 minutes. The previous record, held by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, stood at 60 hours and 21 minutes. This achievement underscores the rigorous demands of spaceflight, as well as the continued importance of extravehicular missions for ISS maintenance and research.

Despite their extended mission duration, Williams and Wilmore are expected to return to Earth in March 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Their stay on the ISS has contributed valuable insights to ongoing research related to human spaceflight endurance, a critical aspect as NASA prepares for longer missions to the Moon and Mars in the coming decades.

Why Space Photography Matters

For decades, astronaut-captured images from space have had a profound impact on how we perceive our planet and our place in the universe. Some of the most famous space photos in history—such as the Apollo 8 “Earthrise” photo (1968) and the “Pale Blue Dot” image (1990) taken by Voyager 1—have fundamentally reshaped humanity’s view of itself.

Pettit’s latest image continues that tradition, reminding us of:

• The delicate nature of Earth’s atmosphere, which appears as only a thin veil shielding life from the harsh vacuum of space.
• The grandeur of the Milky Way, captured from a rare vantage point free of light pollution and Earth’s atmospheric interference.
• The vastness of the cosmos, reinforcing the idea that our planet is just one small part of an immense galaxy.