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ISS astronaut spies a swirling super storm | Space photo of the day for Aug. 4, 2026
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NASA astronaut Anil Menon captured a breathtaking photograph of a massive typhoon swirling in the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station on Aug. 2, 2026. Menon shared the image on X, noting he used an iPhone to shoot through the cupola, the European Space Agency-built observation dome with six circumferential windows and a central nadir window. The photo, released as Space photo of the day for Aug. 4, shows the storm's immense spiral in vivid detail.
The unnamed typhoon appears to be Super Typhoon Dolphin, the fifth tropical cyclone to reach Category 5 status in 2026. Since the photo was taken, Dolphin has weakened to a Category 3 storm and is expected to further downgrade to Category 1 or 2 as it moves westward toward Japan's Okinawa island. The image serves as a stark reminder of the raw power of Earth's most extreme weather systems.
Beyond its visual impact, Menon's photograph demonstrates how far astronaut photography has advanced. Even with a simple phone camera, astronauts can capture and share breathtaking views from orbit. This echoes NASA's recent Artemis II mission, where four crewmembers used iPhones to beam back striking images from around the moon, and even used the devices as mirrors while shaving.
The photo also underscores the incredible engineering achievement that is the International Space Station. Seven people currently live aboard the football-field-sized laboratory, which circles Earth every 90 minutes at 17,500 miles per hour, at an average altitude of about 250 miles. Since 2000, the ISS has hosted international crews and supported countless microgravity experiments.
However, the station is nearing the end of its operational life. NASA plans to retire the ISS and crash it into the Pacific Ocean around 2030. Until then, astronauts like Menon will continue to provide stunning perspectives of our planet, reminding the world of both nature's fury and humanity's reach into space.
