![]() On other space missions, astronauts reported perceiving the LF once every 6.8 minutes on average. On Lunar missions, once their eyes became adapted to the dark, Apollo astronauts reported seeing this phenomenon once every 2.9 minutes on average. On the Apollo 15 mission all three astronauts recorded the same LF, which James Irwin described as "a brilliant streak across the retina". For those who did report seeing these LF, how often they saw them varied across reports. ![]() While these LF were reported by many astronauts, not all astronauts have experienced them on their space missions, even if they have gone on multiple missions. There appear to be individual differences across astronauts in terms of whether they reported seeing the LF or not. (2006), it was pointed out that there were no reports of vertical motion. Terms that have been used to describe the directions are "sideways", "diagonal", "in-out" and "random". Some reported that the LF travel across the visual field, moving from the periphery of the visual field to where the person is fixating, while a couple of others reported motion in the opposite direction. The different types of directions that the LF have been reported to move in vary across reports. Linenger tried shielding himself behind the station's lead-filled batteries, but this was only partly effective. For example, Jerry Linenger reported that during a solar storm, they were directional and that they interfered with sleep since closing his eyes would not help. 17% of the reports mentioned a "single dot" and only a handful mentioned "several dots", "blobs" and a "supernova".Ī reporting of motion of the LF was common among astronauts who experienced the flashes. About 40% of those surveyed reported a "stripe" or "stripes" and about 20% reported a "comet" or "comets". Astronauts who went on other missions reported mainly "elongated shapes". On the Moon flights, astronauts reported seeing the "spots" and "stars" 66% of the time, "streaks" 25% of the time, and "clouds" 8% of the time. These shapes were seen at varying frequencies across astronauts. The main shapes seen are "spots" (or "dots"), "stars" (or "supernovas"), "streaks" (or "stripes"), "blobs" (or "clouds") and "comets". Others instead reported that the flashes were predominantly yellow, while others reported colors such as orange and red, in addition to the most common colors of white and blue. On Lunar missions, astronauts almost always reported that the flashes were white, with one exception where the astronaut observed "blue with a white cast, like a blue diamond." On other space missions, astronauts reported seeing other colors such as yellow and pale green, though rarely. How often each type was seen varied across astronauts' experiences, as evident in a survey of 59 astronauts. They manifested in different colors and shapes. Some LF were reported to be clearly visible, while others were not. In order of decreasing frequency of reporting in a survey, they saw the LF in the dark, in dim light, in bright light and one reported that he saw them regardless of light level and light adaptation. Conditions under which the light flashes were reported Īstronauts who had recently returned from space missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station and Mir Space Station reported seeing the LF under different conditions. Hypotheses include Cherenkov radiation created as the cosmic ray particles pass through the vitreous humour of the astronauts' eyes, direct interaction with the optic nerve, direct interaction with visual centres in the brain, retinal receptor stimulation, and a more general interaction of the retina with radiation. Researchers believe that the LF perceived specifically by astronauts in space are due to cosmic rays (high-energy charged particles from beyond the Earth's atmosphere ), though the exact mechanism is unknown. While LF may be the result of actual photons of visible light being sensed by the retina, the LF discussed here could also pertain to phosphenes, which are sensations of light produced by the activation of neurons along the visual pathway. ![]() Cosmic ray visual phenomena, or light flashes ( LF), also known as Astronaut's Eye, are spontaneous flashes of light visually perceived by some astronauts outside the magnetosphere of the Earth, such as during the Apollo program. ![]()
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