Chinese Astronauts Capture Amazing Earth Photos From Tiangong,

The stunning photos were taken by astronaut Chen Dong.(photo: Chen Dong / CMSA)

JAKARTA - In the midst of the hectic schedule of testing the Chinese space station, Tiangong, and conducting many experiments, a Shenzhou 14 astronaut took the time to capture Earth from space.

The stunning photos were taken by astronaut Chen Dong and released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). It is known that Chen and his colleagues went to Tiangong on June 3.

Chen's photo of Earth shows cities glowing with lights at night, and another captures the jet of air above the planet that is produced when sunlight interacts with atoms and molecules in Earth's atmosphere.

Chen is not the first Chinese astronaut to take spectacular pictures from Earth, as Liu Yang, who launched a previous mission into space in 2012 and made her the first Chinese woman to orbit, also took several pictures, including one of the full moons above Earth.

Then, there are also photos taken by Cai Xuzhe on his first trip to space including a picture of the island of Hainan, not far from mainland China, where the Tiangong module was launched and created a history of tomato plants growing above the station.

Citing Space, Monday, October 17, Shenzhou 14 is the third manned mission to Tiangong. The Shenzhou 14 crew is scheduled to receive new visitors later this month when the third and final Mengtian module for Tiangong is launched.

Crew members are expected to remain in orbit until around December when they will welcome the incoming Shenzhou 15 mission astronauts and perform the first crew handover in China.