Long exposure photographs can capture the ISS appearing to streak across the night sky. The International Space Station from Earth The informative map shows where the ISS is as well as it's speed and altitude. If you would like to know where the space station is right now, ESA's live map (opens in new tab) has got you covered. Though it's worth noting you will only get NASA's Spot the Station alerts when the ISS is passing over with a maximum height of at least 40 degrees, this is because the ISS will be visible above most landscapes at this height.

You can even sign up for email or text alerts for when the space station is flying over so you'll never miss a viewing opportunity again.

In addition, NASA's Spot the Station website (opens in new tab) is a great place to explore ISS sighting opportunities in your area. It will tell you the time of the ISS flyover along with how long it is visible, the maximum height it will reach in the sky and which direction it will appear and disappear from your field of view. Simply pop in the location you wish to know for ISS sighting opportunities and let the widget work its magic. NASA's spot the station widget (below) is a great tool for quickly finding out upcoming ISS viewing opportunities. Viewing opportunities of the ISS can vary between one sighting a month to several a week, depending on your location and the orbit of the ISS. It isn't bright enough to be seen in the middle of the day and the best time to view the ISS is either at dawn or dusk. The ISS is only visible because it reflects sunlight (opens in new tab). Russian and Soviet space stations throughout history This International Space Station VR experience lets you explore the ISSвЂ¦ and it's as amazing as it sounds The spacecraft will fly some 7,500 km from the Venus cloud tops.- International Space Station: Live updates The Solar OrbiterвЂ™s perihelion to the Sun occurred on December 27, at about 12:39 UTC (13:39 CET) amid the holiday season, according to ESA. The spacecraft isВ expected to incline in a tilt under the influence of the SunвЂ™s gravitational force as it will face Venus to make observations that will help scientists learn more about the planet. In another news about ESA, aВ UK designed spacecraft made its firstВ flyby of Venus as it heads for the Sun in a mission to decode the mysteries of the neighbouring planet. Read: IN PICS: Mesmerizing 'Christmas Angel' With A Halo Appears On The Surface Of Mars

Read: British-built Spacecraft To Make First Flyby To Venus On Dec 27 Amid Holiday Season: ESA cover features findings by a first for an International experiment! The paper describes a sighting of five intense blue flashes in a cloud top, one generating a вЂblue jetвЂ™ into the stratosphere /XjqRt5VGqO An animated artistвЂ™s visualization of the phenomenon has now been released by the European Space Agency (ESA). Known as вЂњelvesвЂќ, the phenomenon stands for Emissions of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources. In addition to the blue jets, researchers also saw another phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere. The blue jet then fanned out from the cloud in a narrow cone shape that stretched into theВ stratosphere, the atmospheric layer that extends from about 6 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometres) above the Earth's surface, as described by. The scientists report that they saw five intense flashes of blue light, each lasting about 10 to 20 milliseconds. The phenomenon was spotted on by the European Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitors near island of Naru on the Pacific Ocean.

Blue jet lighting, also known as Upper Atmospheric lighting, is a bolt of lightning that shoots upwards from thunderstorms. Describing their sightings in the journal Nature, they said thatВ it was captured by their instruments on February 26, 2019. In another spectacular show, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently spotted a blue jet.

International space station sightings