Space Station footage shows stunning 'Southern Lights' over the Indian Ocean

NASA on Wednesday released this stunning video of the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, taken from the International Space Station on Sept. 17. The footage was captured as the space station passed from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia over the Indian Ocean. The aurora appears when ions in the solar wind collide with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, emitting light as the excited atoms return to their original energy level.