‘Stunning’ lightning photo over India: NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick on SpaceX mission shares pic, goes viral

Matthew Dominick, the NASA astronaut and US Navy test pilot, is in the spotlight for yet another incredible picture captured from space. The latest viral picture encapsulates the impressive lightning shot in the night sky over India amid a season of thunderstorms and monsoon showers.

Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Crew-8 mission posted a picture of lightning over the Indian subcontinent captured from space. The caption to the post reads, “Lightning at night over India.”

Matthew Dominick shared the post on Saturday. Giving technical details about the splendid shot, he stated, “When trying to capture lighting in an image I use burst mode and hope lighting strikes in the frame. I was super happy when this lightning strike ended up in the middle of the frame. No crop needed. 1/5s, 85mm, f1.4, ISO 6400.”

With over 10.11 lakh views, the post has amassed more than 13,000 likes. Netizens were strong to react to this post as one user questioned, “What are those 2 arcs on top?” To this, Matthew Dominick replied, “Different layers of Earth’s atmosphere.”

Another user stated, "Is that blurring of the city lights from camera shake, atmospheric, or just the motion of the orbit?" Addressing the user's query, the NASA astronaut commented, "In the bottom middle of the image, you can see lights from boats in the waters that look like short little lines or streaks." 

He further noted that the streaks are caused by the space station’s orbital speed, which is “the distance the space station moves in 1/5s (camera’s exposure time).”

Matthew Dominick further suggested that the blur over the city in the left and middle of the frame is due to light haze or clouds. This atmospheric phenomenon is combined with streaking from orbital speed.

A third user tweeted, “Looking at it, looks like the lightning strike is somewhere in the middle of the Deccan plateau, a region like Bangalore.” A fourth user wrote, “Incredible picture!”