Lighting the Night in Southern Africa

An astronaut’s sweeping nighttime photograph of Namibia and South Africa reveals the region’s lighted communities, many of which are centered around mining.

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Astronaut photograph ISS071-E-523401 was acquired on August 21, 2024, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 50 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 71 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.

Published December 8, 2024
Data acquired August 21, 2024

Source:

ISS > Digital Camera

Collection:

Astronaut Photography