ESA astronaut Tim Peake posted this stunning image on his social media channels, commenting: “Station passed through magnificent aurora Australis last night”. Tim is set to return to Earth on 18 June 2016, bringing his six-month Principia mission to the ISS to an end. During his stay he performed more than 30 scientific experiments for ESA and taking part in numerous others from ESA's international partners. ESA and the UK Space Agency have partnered to develop many exciting educational activities around the Principia mission, aimed at sparking the interest of young children in science and space. (Photo by Tim Peake/ESA/NASA)

A cat walks past a Soyuz space ship installed at a museum, at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, November 15, 2016. The start of the new Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled on early Friday, Nov. 18 local time. The Russian rocket will carry French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and U.S. astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A Russian Soyuz MS space capsule stands on the ground shortly after its landing with International Space Station (ISS) crew members Kate Rubins of the U.S., Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia and Takuya Onishi of Japan, as a rescue helicopter lands nearby, outside the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, October 30, 2016. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/Reuters)

Astronaut Donald R. Pettit would often rig an array of as many as six cameras in the cupola windows and set them all to fire continuously for events such as sunsets, which only last around seven seconds on the ISS. (Photo by Donald R. Pettit)

Wild foxes walk in front of a launch pad prior the launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, July 7, 2016. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, and Japan astronaut Takuya Onishi. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Police officers with a sniffer dog check a railway as the Soyuz MS spacecraft for the next International Space Station (ISS) crew of Kate Rubins of the U.S., Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia and Takuya Onishi of Japan is ready to be transported from an assembling hangar to the launchpad ahead of its launch scheduled on July 7, at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 4, 2016. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

A handout phptopgraph made avaiable by NASA showing Russian support personnel roll the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft after it landed with with with Expedition 47 crew members Tim Kopra of NASA, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan 18 June 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/EPA/NASA)

European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake will return home after a six-month long mission on the International Space Station,on June 18, 2016. Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the ISS and captured hundreds of photographs of the Earth during his mission. Here: “Lots of sun-glint right now during our whole orbit – we haven't seen a sunset for over 3 days”, he wrote. (Photo by Tim Peake/ESA/NASA)