See Earth and the Milky Way in this stunning shot

Milky Way and Earth

In a breathtaking image, astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station captured Earth and our Milky Way galaxy on January 29, 2025. Pettit used low-light and long-duration settings to bring out the stars and gas clouds of the Milky Way with the glow of the rising sun illuminating Earth’s limb (edge). In this view, the space station was 265 miles (426 km) above the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile.

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Another recent image of the Milky Way and Earth

Here’s another great shot Don Pettit shared on his Reddit page on February 24, 2025. It also features the Earth and distant Milky Way, but this time we see auroras lighting the limb of Earth. Pettit described the image:

Time exposure using my orbital sidereal tracker from Dragon Crew 9 vehicle. This image shows horizon views of the Milky Way, atmospheric airglow, aurora, and the soon-to-rise sun over a cloudy Pacific Ocean. … The blue-purple emission is commonly seen during the sunrise-sunset phase of orbit. … I am careful with the color adjustment to render the natural colors in a realistic way. (I despise overboard color adjustments.)

Astronaut and photographer Don Pettit

Don Pettit is a national treasure. The 69-year-old astronaut from Oregon is on his third long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. And he’s been taking absolutely iconic images from out the cupola of the space station and the windows of the attached Dragon crew capsules. In 2012, Pettit took the first image of Venus transiting the sun from space. More recently, he’s taking images of auroras, star trails, comets and more.

You can see more of his amazing images at this Reddit page.

Images of Earth from space

Do you love looking at images of Earth from space? Then take this quiz! See how many cities you can identify from images that astronauts have taken from the International Space Station.

Bottom line: Astronaut Don Pettit has captured stunning views of Earth and the Milky Way from the International Space Station. Check them here.

Via NASA

Via Reddit