Peering out from the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth lately, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti noticed an “intriguing” brilliant mild in the midst of a desert.

Sharing a number of pictures of the unusual sight, the Italian house traveler famous how uncommon it’s to see a brilliant spot like this within the daytime.

After conducting some analysis, she was in a position to affirm that the sunshine was coming from a tower at a photo voltaic thermal energy plant in Israel’s Negev desert.

“Intriguing sight! A bright dot in the Negev desert,” Cristoforetti tweeted to her a million followers. “So unusual to see human-made lights in day passes! It’s a concentrated solar power plant, one of the technologies to get renewable energy from the Sun. With one of the world’s tallest solar power towers!”

Intriguing sight! A brilliant dot within the Negev desert…so uncommon to see human-made lights in day passes! It’s a concentrated solar energy plant, one of many applied sciences to get renewable power from the Sun. With one of many world’s tallest solar energy towers! #MissionMinerva pic.twitter.com/MFbCpXpxmG

— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) August 25, 2022

The Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station noticed by the ISS astronaut includes greater than 50,000 computer-controlled heliostats, or mirrors, with a 250-meter-high solar energy tower at its heart.

The mirrors monitor the solar, reflecting its mild onto a boiler on the high of the tower that produces steam to energy a turbine. The plant reportedly produces sufficient power to energy round 70,000 households.

Below is a better picture of the plant as seen on Google Maps:

And right here’s an image of the tower captured from the bottom:

During their downtime, ISS astronauts like to go to the station’s seven-window Cupola module to absorb the superb panoramic views of Earth and past. Some, like Cristoforetti, wish to seize one of many station’s Nikon DSLR cameras to seize among the extraordinary surroundings.

Recent house station inhabitant Thomas Pesquet was notably helpful with the digital camera, and went to nice lengths to present himself the very best likelihood of grabbing some high pictures throughout his keep.

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