Astronauts Celebrate Autumn Equinox 2017 With One Last Aloha Friday

By Calla Cofield
published

Crewmembers on the International Space Station celebrate "Aloha Friday." From left to right: Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei, Cmdr. Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli.
Crewmembers on the International Space Station celebrate "Aloha Friday." From left to right: Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei, Cmdr. Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli. (Image credit: Randy Bresnik/Twitter)

Today (Sept. 22) is the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but the astronauts on the International Space Station squeezed in one last "Aloha Friday."

Randy Bresnik, NASA astronaut and Expedition 53 commander, posted two photographs to Twitter of he and his crewmates wearing space-themed Hawaiian shirts (or Aloha shirts). The brightly colored short-sleeved shirts feature red and yellow planets, blue stars and purple gas clouds.

"Our Earth is but an island in the cosmos," Bresnik wrote. "Exp 53 crew is embracing the island lifestyle with our @Space_StationHawaiians on #AlohaFriday!"

Crewmembers on the International Space Station celebrate "Aloha Friday," with space-themed Hawaiian shirts. (Image credit: Randy Bresnik/Twitter)

 

Aloha Friday originated in Hawaii and is similar to "casual Fridays," but allows businesspeople to wear Aloha shirts to work on Friday during the hot summer months.

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Bresnik also posted a picture of Earth, full of reddish hues that may have been created by autumn leaves on trees. The astronaut did not state the region of the planet that was featured in the image.

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Calla Cofield
Calla Cofield
Senior Writer

Calla Cofield joined Space.com's crew in October 2014. She enjoys writing about black holes, exploding stars, ripples in space-time, science in comic books, and all the mysteries of the cosmos. Prior to joining Space.com Calla worked as a freelance writer, with her work appearing in APS News, Symmetry magazine, Scientific American, Nature News, Physics World, and others. From 2010 to 2014 she was a producer for The Physics Central Podcast. Previously, Calla worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (hands down the best office building ever) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Calla studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is originally from Sandy, Utah. In 2018, Calla left Space.com to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory media team where she oversees astronomy, physics, exoplanets and the Cold Atom Lab mission. She has been underground at three of the largest particle accelerators in the world and would really like to know what the heck dark matter is. Contact Calla via: E-Mail – Twitter