NASA has shared a captivating image of the Earth’s terminator, the thin line separating day and night.

The picture, taken from the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting 267 miles above the Pacific Ocean, shows the breathtaking moment when a new day dawns on our planet.

The ISS, which completes 16 orbits of the Earth in 24 hours, offers a unique vantage point to witness the terminator, a phenomenon that occurs when the sun’s rays illuminate the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a distinct boundary between night and day. This boundary is visible as a thin, glowing line on the horizon, where the blue of the atmosphere meets the golden hues of sunrise.

Understanding the Earth’s terminator

The Earth’s terminator is the moving line that separates day and night on our planet, as per NASA. It is a result of the Earth’s rotation and its position relative to the Sun. It passes through most locations on Earth twice a day, once for sunrise and once for sunset, except for areas near the North and South Poles which experience long periods of darkness or sunlight during winter or summer months.

How Earth’s terminator affects/changes seasons

The Earth’s axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees, which causes the Northern and Southern Hemispheres to receive varying amounts of sunlight throughout the year. This tilt leads to the changing of the seasons, NASA says.

During the equinoxes (March and September), the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to its orbit, and the terminator is straight. Both hemispheres receive equal amounts of sunlight, resulting in milder temperatures and moderate weather.

The solstices (June and December) occur when the Earth’s tilt is most pronounced, and the terminator is curved. One hemisphere receives more daylight than the other, resulting in the longest and shortest days of the year.

The Earth’s tilt also affects the distribution of sunlight, impacting the length of days and nights. As the terminator moves, it alters the environment and influences natural processes.

The March equinox typically occurs around March 20/21, and the September equinox around September 22/23. The June solstice occurs around June 20/21, and the December solstice around December 21/22. These dates can vary slightly due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit and the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies.

American space agency NASA gave a platform to an independent committee looking into the reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), in which the researchers said that they did not find any proof that aliens were responsible for the phenomenon. However, the agency also said that it cannot rule out that possibility. The 36-page report presented on Thursday offers no conclusive evidence about aliens but outlines how NASA will investigate the phenomenon (called UAPs or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) with improved technology and artificial intelligence.

Do aliens exist?

The report observes that “there is no reason to conclude that existing UAP reports have an extraterrestrial source”. However, the last page of the report adds that it is possible that the objects could have travelled through our solar system to get here. “If we recognise the plausibility of any of these, then we should recognise that all are at least plausible,” the report said not denying the possibility of “potential unknown alien technology operating in Earth’s atmosphere”.

What about previous UFO sightings?

The inquiry concluded that many sightings have been explained by planes, drones, balloons or meteorological circumstances in the past. A January report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the US revealed that most of the 510 UFO sightings were decidedly not aliens, “however scores of other strange sightings still have no official explanation”. It said that UAP still poses a threat even if they are not extraterrestrial advanced technology.

The report added that in order to reach a “definitive, scientific conclusion” about the origin of UFOs, NASA lacks sufficient high-quality evidence. However, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson still believes that there is life beyond Earth. “If you ask me, do I believe there’s life in a universe that is so vast that it’s hard for me to comprehend how big it is? My personal answer is yes. It would have to be a very advanced civilization (but) the distances is light years, hundreds of lights, billions of light years away.”

Limited Data

The study asserted that given the data limitations, the sightings of UFO’s “cannot be immediately identified as known human-made or natural phenomena.” Dr Nicola Fox, NASA’s Associate Administrator said that the agency “needs to find a rocky planet around a hospitable star that isn’t too violent, that is in just that right place that has signatures of water and signatures of carbon. So, the building blocks of life, and we continue to strive to do that.”

“The limitation on this data is that at any given time most of the Earth’s surface is not covered by commercial satellites at high resolution – for a particular UAP event, we will need to be fortunate to obtain high-resolution observations from space,” she said.

Appointment Of UFO Research Director

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that a new director for UAP research will be appointed by the organisation. However, the new executive’s identity has not yet been made public since they have been receiving online threats regarding their work. According to Dr Fox,  the new director will serve as a focal point for bringing together communications, resources and data analytic skills in the US government’s efforts to recognise and understand UAP.