English: NASA Mission Science description: This unusual false-color image shows how the Earth glows in ultraviolet (UV) light. The Far UV Camera/Spectrograph deployed and left on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 16 captured this image. The part of the Earth facing the Sun reflects much UV light and bands of UV emission are also apparent on the side facing away from the Sun. These bands are the result of aurora caused by charged particles given off by the Sun. They spiral towards the Earth along Earth's magnetic field lines.
NASA Spaceflight description: An artificially reproduced color enhancement of a ten-minute far-ultraviolet exposure of Earth, taken with a filter which blocks the glow caused by atomic hydrogen but which transmits the glow caused by atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen. Note that airglow emission bands are visible on the night side of Earth, one roughly centered between the two polar auroral zones and one at an angle to this extending northward toward the sunlit side of Earth. The UV camera was operated by astronaut John W. Young on the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission. It was designed and built at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. EDITOR'S NOTE: The photographic number of the original black & white UV camera photograph, from which this artificially reproduced version was made, is AS16-123-19657.