getting funneled through the mag-
netic field down into our atmosphere.
At higher levels, those auroras are also
white/red streaks. I never realized there
were different colors there.
Here’s something else I discovered: As
you go around the Earth, during the day
you see a thin blue line, which is our atmo-
sphere. But at night, it’s about five times as
thick and brown, with a little green line at
the top. It turns out the atmosphere goes
up really high, like a hundred miles, but it
becomes really thin. However, during the
day, you can’t see it.
How many miles above Earth
were you and how do you
stay in orbit after turning the
engines off?
Mr. Isaac Newton! Once you’re moving,
unless something pushes on you, your
motion is not going to change. There’s
such a small amount of air, it barely
impacts anything. We just floated in our
orbit roughly 250 miles above Earth.
Can you see manmade struc-
tures such as China’s Great Wall?
You can’t see the Great Wall because
of pollution. The only form that really
stuck out during the day was Buenos
Aires and Montevideo on a bay on the
east coast of South America.
At nighttime, you see city lights.
One of the profound things that I
never realized until I thought about it
is that when you see those city lights,
you’re not seeing population, you’re
seeing wealth.Where did you see the
most wealth?
Western Europe, the East Coast of
America, East Asia from Thailand
through Japan. There’s a lot of eco-
nomic activity going on down there.
I think the most profound picture
I took from space was of North and
South Korea at night. Some people
live in the light. Some people live in
the dark.What final thoughts do you
have on this project?
The main thing about photography is
that it’s the artistic side of space flight,
and it’s the way to capture spaceflight for
people on Earth.
When I went to the Air and Space
Museum for the grand opening of
“A Beautiful Planet,” the director
there told me that a million people
were going to see that movie. They’ll
be showing it for years.
So, in my mind, it was the most
important and useful thing I did
because so many people will get to
see it. The technical stuff is great,
but I think the human element
is most important. Photography
was my vehicle to share the story
with folks. DPPFor more on Terry Virts’ work, visit his
website at terryvirts.com, his Twitter feed
at @astroterry, Instagram at astro_ terry
and Facebook account astrovirts.The Bahamas and the Caribbean.34 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com