The Moon saluting an immense white expanse, the arch of the Alps jagged like an embroidery, immense tongues of ice in Canada: snow is the protagonist of the winter landscapes that the astronaut Luca Parmitano photographs from the International Space Station.
"The Moon rises above a snow-covered world", writes the astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) by publishing on Twitter the photo of the Moon that stands out against a dark sky that frames a bluish landscape.
The moon on a snowy landscape (source: Luca Parmitano, ESA, NASA)
AstroLuca then immortalized the Alps with a panoramic photo that includes most of Italy and then with a zoom on the glaciers.
The snow-covered Alps (source: Luca Parmitano, ESA, NASA)
The photo depicting Canadarm, the robotic arm of the Space Station built by the Canadian space agency CSA, is also dedicated to the snows of Canada.
The robotic arm of the Space Station, Canadarm, and Canada covered in snow in the background (source: Luca Parmitano, ESA, NASA)
The photo that required the longest wait is the one that portrays the noctilucent clouds. This is the name of the clouds that form at about 80 kilometers above sea level by condensation of the ice particles that derive from meteor debris, which reflect the light of the Sun like microscopic mirrors generating spectacular blue reflections. "I waited patiently for the mesospheric clouds to make their transient appearance in the highest layers of the sky. And I was not at all disappointed by their ethereal, iridescent beauty," wrote AstroLuca.
Noctilucent (or mesospheric) clouds seen from the Space Station (source: Luca Parmitano, ESA, NASA)
