NASA Releases Picture Of Waxing Crescent Moon But Colourful Atmosphere Steals The Show

NASA's International Space Station recently released a spectacular image of the "waxing crescent moon." The picture was captured on September 30, 2022, and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) informed that ISS took this picture when it orbited 267 miles (429 km) above the Atlantic Ocean southwest of South Africa during an orbital sunrise.

The image contains the waxing crescent moon and a brilliant sequence of colours roughly denoting several layers of the atmosphere. NASA explained that this edge-on view of Earth gives us a look into the layers of our colourful atmosphere. The troposphere (orange) is at the bottom, above the dark limb of the Earth's surface. This is the layer we call home, housing the air that we breathe and the clouds in the sky.

The US space agency in their Instagram post further added that above it lies the white stratosphere; this layer is 22 miles (35 km) thick. It contains the ozone layer that protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV) rays.

The light blue of the mesosphere and beyond gradually fades to the darkness of space. "The mesosphere is where meteors burn up during meteor showers, due to the number of gasses present that cause friction and create heat," NASA said.

Check out the picture here:

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope earlier shared an image of a "mysterious cosmic keyhole." The telescope, which is known for its momentous discoveries, captured the picture of NGC 1999, a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, located 1,350 light-years from Earth. 

The incredible image showed a "peculiar portrait" of the swirling clouds of gas and dust. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared the ethereal view of the nebula on Friday.