Lightning And Earth's Moon Photo-Bombed A NASA Astronaut's Spectacular Shot From Space

An astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS) took an incredible of image of a lightning strike while over Southeast Asia, and the Moon took the opportunity to photo bomb the picture. The image was captured last year by an unnamed member of the Expedition 66 crew.

Astronauts aboard the ISS no doubt see some of the most amazing sites and views while traversing the outer realm of Earth high in space. Sometimes those moments are captured for all of us stuck on Earth to view as well. One of those incredible moments captured last year may first appear to be simply two weird orbs glowing in the distance. However, upon closer investigation they are in fact a lightning strike and the Moon.


The image was taken as the ISS was over the South China Sea. The blue blob in the lower-middle of the image is actually a massive lightning strike, which occurred over the Gulf of Thailand. The second glowing orb, on the upper-right hand side, is our very own Moon.

The orientation of the Moon in relation to ISS results in the light from the Moon reflecting back from the sun, as it passes through Earth's atmosphere, according to Earth Observatory. In other parts of the image, the orange and white hued city lights are blurred by storm clouds.


For context, the photo stretches from the Vietnamese coast to Thailand with Laos making up the center of the photograph. To give an idea of how much area is included in the image, the distance from Hainan Island to Kunming is more than 800 kilometers (500 miles).

The photograph was taken by an unnamed astronaut, who was part of the Expedition 66 crew, on October 30, 2021. It was captured using a Nikon D5 digital camera, using a focal length of 28 millimeters. NASA stated that the image was cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and that lens artifacts have been removed from the image.