Astronaut Captures Stunning Milky Way Over Earth From the ISS Cupola

When you think of space photography, the usual suspects are sleek rockets or distant nebulae. In reality, some of the most awe‑inspiring pictures come from a small, seven‑window dome circling our planet at 28,000 km/h – the Cupola aboard the International Space Station.

Veteran NASA astronaut Don Pettit just released what many are calling one of the clearest views of the Milky Way ever captured from orbit. In the image, the dense band of our galaxy stretches across the inky black, while below it the Earth glows with city lights, a thin ribbon of green airglow and the faint curve of the horizon.

“I finally have all 1.2 million raw image files from my latest mission to ISS! Here is a sample of one of my favorite Milky Way photos,” Pettit wrote on X, attaching the picture taken with a Nikon Z9 paired with a 15 mm ARRI Zeiss lens.

Getting a crisp star field from a platform moving that fast isn’t easy. A normal long exposure would turn the stars into smeared streaks. To beat that, Pettit rigged a custom side‑real (sidereal) drive that counter‑rotated the camera, essentially cancelling out the station’s motion for the duration of the shot.

The Cupola has become the go‑to spot for ISS crew members who love photography. Its panoramic windows provide an unobstructed view of Earth’s weather, auroras, and, when the lights are right, the deep‑space backdrop.

Besides the dazzling Milky Way, the photo also captures a faint green glow hugging the planet’s edge. Scientists call this “airglow” – a natural emission from atoms high up in the atmosphere that becomes visible when you’re above most of the clouds and city light pollution.

For Pettit, snapping images is more than a hobby; it’s a way to share the wonder of space with the public. He spent countless hours on the station’s free‑time, photographing storms, auroral curtains, and the quiet darkness of space, building a visual archive that will be studied and enjoyed for years.

The image has already sparked a wave of admiration online, with many describing it as a “spectacular” glimpse of our galaxy over a living, breathing Earth – a reminder of how small we are, yet how beautifully connected we feel when we look up.