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A stellar lineup! Astronaut captures incredible images of Earth, moon AND Venus from onboard the ISS

The photographs were taken by US astronaut Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station
He took the first image and posted it to Twitter at 4.42pm yesterday, the second image was taken 12 hours later
Both shots show the curvature of Earth, a bright-looking moon and Venus and the ISS in the foreground

Published: 09:21 EST, 10 September 2015 | Updated: 02:56 EST, 11 September 2015

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Even the most stunning views of the Earth seen from on board the ISS are bound to become the norm during a year-long mission.

So it's no wonder astronaut Scott Kelly got so excited when this everyday view was photobombed by both the moon and Venus.

He tweeted two images of the alignment, 12 hours apart, as the station orbited towards the US and journeyed over Texas.

Posting the images to Twitter, astronaut Scott Kelly wrote: 'Day 166. #Venus photobombed the #Moon tonight. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace.' This image shows the curvature Earth, the moon and Venus behind it as well as part of the International Space Station in the foreground

In the first, posted at 4.42pm GMT yesterday, the 51-year-old wrote: 'Day 166. #Venus photobombed the #Moon tonight. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace.'

The second was posted this morning and said: 'Good morning Texas! Great view of you, the moon, and Venus this morning.'

SCOTT KELLY AND THE TWIN STUDY

Scott Kelly, together with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, boarded the ISS in March and are part of a first-of-its-kind experiment to test how the human body copes with prolonged space travel.

They will be the first astronauts to spend a year on the station.

Mr Kelly's identical twin Mark has remained on Earth, allowing Nasa to examine the changes between these genetically identical people in two vastly different environments.

Called the Nasa Twin Study, over the next 12 months both the Kellys will be subjected to 10 experiments in human physiology, behavioural health, microbiology and molecular.

By staying on the station for 12 months, the astronauts will provide key information on how an eventual Mars mission - estimated to last three years there and back - might play out.

Venus was particularly visible overnight because of its 'high albedo'.

Albedo is the amount of light the planet reflects back into space and comes from the permanent cloud layer that surrounds it.

These clouds reflect around 75 per cent of the sunlight they receive back toward Earth, and this reflected light explains why the planet appears so bright in Mr Kelly's images.

The moon looks equally bright because of reflected sunlight, and also looks larger due to its proximity to the station. In reality, the moon has a radius that is three-and-a-half times smaller than Venus.

In fact, the moon is the only object in the night sky brighter than Venus.

Mr Kelly, together with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, boarded the ISS in March and are part of a first-of-its-kind experiment to test how the human body copes with prolonged space travel.

They will be the first astronauts to spend a year on the station, double the length of time that typical missions last.

Mr Kelly's identical twin brother Mark has remained on Earth, allowing Nasa to examine the changes between these genetically identical people in two vastly different environments.

Called the Nasa Twin Study, over the next 12 months both the Kellys will be subjected to 10 experiments in four areas: human physiology, behavioural health, microbiology and molecular.

One experiment will monitor how cosmic radiation affects the ageing process in humans, while another will monitor the immune systems of the brothers.

They won't follow the same diet or exercise regime, however.

Mark - himself a former astronaut - said he has no intentions of consuming bland space-type food or working out and running two hours a day on a treadmill, as his brother will be doing in space.

The opportunity is an exciting 'two-for-one' deal for Nasa as, not only is this twin study a first for space travel, the mission itself also has much grander goals.

The second image was posted this morning and said: 'Good morning Texas! Great view of you, the moon, and Venus this morning.' Texas is seen to the right of the ISS, the moon and Venus are pictured bottom left

Scott Kelly (left), together with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (right), boarded the ISS in March and are part of a first-of-its-kind experiment to test how the human body copes with prolonged space travel. They will be the first astronauts to spend a year on the station

By staying on the station for 12 months with Mr Kornienko, the astronauts will provide key information on how an eventual Mars mission - estimated to last three years there and back - might play out.

A mission to the red planet will require long periods of time in reduced-gravity environments, both in space and on the surface of the red planet.

But, until now, crew members on the 250 mile (400km) orbiting platform- six in total - have only spent about six months on the station at a time.

Scott Kelly has flown in space three times for a total of 180 days, while Mr Kornienko has a single 176-day station flight on his resume.

Kelly acknowledges it will be a challenge 'keeping the level of fatigue down, enthusiasm up, energy reserves to respond to an emergency.'

Scott Kelly (left) is on board the ISS. His twin brother Mark (right) has remained on Earth to monitor changes in human DNA. The mission will provide data on how humans cope with space travel. Kelly is joined by cosmonaut Mikharil Kornienko on the first year-long ISS stay

'What makes this exciting for me, this one-year flight, is about the science and everything we're going to learn from expanding the envelope on the space station,' Kelly said in an interview in December.

'If we're ever going to go to Mars someday, the International Space Station is really a great platform to learn much more about having people live and work in space for longer durations.

'It's close to the Earth, and it's a great orbiting facility.'

Kelly, a former Navy fighter pilot, said his goals are the same as they are every time he flies in space: 'No one gets hurt, we don't break anything and we leave as friends.'

THE YEAR-LONG ASTRONAUTS

Scott Kelly

This is the fourth spaceflight for Mr Kelly, 51, a former Nasa shuttle commander and Navy test pilot whose identical twin brother, Mark, also was chosen as an astronaut in 1996.

The two will conduct many of the same medical experiments over the coming year so scientists can compare the results.

Scott Kelly's first two flights were aboard shuttles. He spent more than five months on the space station in 2010 to 2011. It was during that mission that his sister-in-law, then Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, nearly died after being shot in the head in Tucson, Arizona.

Once he's back home in Houston, Kelly imagines it will be 'hard to walk away' from spaceflight.

He'd love to pilot one of the new US spacecraft in development.

But he figures if he cuts in front of other astronauts awaiting assignments, 'someone will run me over with their car.'

What will Kelly miss the most, besides his loved ones? The weather.

'It never changes on the space station,' he said.

'Even though it's a pretty nice environment, I guess it's like living in Southern California, people get sick of it ... after a while.'

Mikhail Kornienko

It is the second space mission for Mr Kornienko, 54, a former paratrooper whose helicopter-pilot father was part of the search and rescue team for the first Soviet cosmonauts back in the 1960s.

His father brought back souvenirs from the returning Soyuz capsules: uneaten food rations and pieces of the orange silky parachutes used for the final descent.

'Mom made gorgeous skirts out of them,' he said. 'I still have a small piece of one of those parachutes.

'I cherish it as if it were something sacred.'

A religious man, Mr Kornienko is taking into orbit a folding icon depicting the Madonna and Child.

His previous station stay was in 2010, 12 years after his selection as a cosmonaut.

He figures he'll miss the same things he dreamed about last time he flew: water not in the form of blobs as in space, but water you can swim in, as well as grass, forests and fields.

Mr Kornienko already says he'd take on another one-year mission — after a break, of course.