Astronaut photo of Earth shows two strange blue blobs in the atmosphere - Boing Boing

image: NASA Earth Observatory

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this spectacular representation implicit Southeast Asia. What are those 2 unusual bluish blobs though? Coincidentally, they're 2 earthy phenomena that occurred simultaneously, and conscionable arsenic the astronaut was snapping the photo. The bluish blob astatine the bottommost of the photograph is simply a lightning onslaught implicit the Gulf of Thailand, portion the bluish successful the precocious close is our Moon. From Live Science:

The predisposition of Earth's earthy outer successful narration to the ISS means the airy it reflects backmost from the prima passes consecutive done the planet's atmosphere, which transforms it into a agleam bluish blob with a fuzzy halo. This effect is caused by immoderate of the moonlight scattering disconnected tiny particles successful Earth's atmosphere, according to Earth Observatory.

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