Ricky Arnold Tweets A Beautiful Picture Of Indonesia’s Bali Island From Space

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold was launched into space last month and since his arrival on the International Space Station (ISS), he has posted some excellent pictures of different parts of the earth. The American astronaut has now shared an amazing photograph of Indonesia’s Bali Island to his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

According to Coconuts, the image shows Bali Island neatly placed between the neighboring Java and Lombok islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Ricky Arnold, a Maryland native, also captioned the picture with a “selamat pagi,” saying “good morning” to the people of the Asian country that he “once called home.”

“Selamat pagi Indonesia – a place I once called home. Java, Bali, & Lombok all lined up neatly in a row,” Ricky tweeted.

“The narrow straights between Bali and Java are known as the Wallace Line. Alfred Russel Wallace formulated his own theory of evolution based on his time on these islands.”

Being an equatorial country, Indonesia mostly remains covered with thick clouds when viewed from the outer space. When there are no clouds, astronauts get a clear view of the vast Indonesian archipelago, and they rarely miss this opportunity to capture some superb, panoramic shots of this picturesque region from space.

According to Indo, Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, comprising of approximately 17,000 islands spanning more than 5,000 kilometers from east to west. Major islands or island groups of Indonesia include Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya. The country is largely mountainous with about 400 volcanoes. The Indonesian archipelago is also known for its rich flora and fauna that is quite idiosyncratic. Some species flourishing in this region are found nowhere else on earth.

Selamat pagi Indonesia – a place I once called home. Java, Bali, & Lombok all lined up neatly in a row. The narrow straights between Bali and Java are known as the Wallace Line. Alfred Russel Wallace formulated his own theory of evolution based on his time on these islands. pic.twitter.com/rK8lnmXqQR

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) March 30, 2018

Bali is located east of Java Island and for the most part, is covered with mountains. Mount Agung is the highest point of Bali. Lombok is located east of Bali across the Lombok Strait and is about the same size as Bali.

Astronaut Ricky Arnold (Richard R. Arnold II), currently onboard the ISS, was launched to the ISS last month along with fellow astronaut Drew Feustel and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. Arnold has previously lived in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Morocco, according to NASA. He was selected by NASA for its astronaut class in 2004. Arnold’s first trip to space happened in 2009 during the STS-119 Discovery mission. The primary objective of the mission was to deliver a truss element and a pair of solar array wings for the ISS. During this mission, Arnold spent more than 12 days in space and also carried out two spacewalks.