This Astronaut's Selfie Wins Everything

It's National Selfie Day, people, and you know what that means? Thousands upon thousands of people trying to out-Kardashian each other, ignorant of the fact that NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's space station seflie outdoes us all. Unless you also happen to be orbiting 220 miles above the earth, of course, but in that case you're probably Kelly's Russian counterpart in their year-long stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Mikhail Kornienko, and I'm not sure why he would be reading an American feminist website. Just in case... Здравствуйте, Mr. Kornienko!

Under the assumption that you're not either of those astronauts, let me give you a little background. Generally, people only reside at the space station for six months or less, but if we're ever hoping to send people to Mars, NASA needs to know how longer space travel affects the human body. That's where Kelly and Kornienko come in — Kelly is currently aboard the International Space Station, where he will become the first American to spend a continuous year in space as of next March, according to Mashable. His mission allows researchers to study the toll long-term weightlessness takes on the human body, but there is another benefit any millennial could have seen coming: opportunities for some seriously epic selfies.

On Saturday, Kelly posted two selfies on Twitter from the same spot in the ISS, with only a few seconds' difference in between. It sounds like your average Wednesday night Instagram feed, but there is one important difference that makes it so much cooler than anything we earthbound residents could post. The first photo uses the light of the North African desert, Kelly wrote online, while the next was lit by the Mediterranean Sea.

I thought my apartment's windows gave cool lighting, but Kelly's selfies are the winner, hands down. This is merely the latest in a long series of astronauts showing up earthlings: Samantha Cristoforetti took a Star Trek selfie last week, and even the Mars rover Curiosity has gotten in on the action. Is anyone else sensing a pattern here?

There's only one explanation: they clearly teach a course on epic selfies in astronaut school, and I, for one, demand to audit that class. Judging from my pitiful Instagram follower count, I need all the help I can get.

Images: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center/Flickr; /Tumblr; Giphy