Brussels and Antwerp at Night

The crew of the international Space Station took this night shot of Brussels, the capital of and largest city in Belgium, and also the de facto headquarters of the European Union. The other city is Antwerp, located on the Scheldt River, which appears as a black line angling through the city. Antwerp is a major European port with access to the Atlantic Ocean. Its extensive dock facilities are even more brightly lit than the city center. Other brilliant points are the city center of Brussels and the Brussels National Airport. Major highways appear as straighter, brighter lines radiating from the two cities. Another photo taken from the International Space Station shows the nearby city of Liége in 2012.

A contextual view of Belgium, Netherlands, and northwest Germany, taken one minute earlier with a shorter (wider-angle) lens, gives the panoramic view as the ISS crossed into Europe from the Atlantic Ocean.

Astronaut photographs ISS039-E-9383 and ISS039-E-9933 were acquired on March 5, 2014 with a Nikon D3S digital camera, and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by the Expedition 39 crew. The images in this article have been enhanced to improve contrast. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Jacobs at NASA-JSC.

Instrument(s): 

ISS - Digital Camera - NASA