The International Space Station goes through a perfect sun in a beautiful image of NASA



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It is about 16 times around our planet every day and the international space station was photographed as it passed in the sun.

Photographer Rainee Colacurcio took this amazing picture. It is presented as the photo of NASA's day in astronomy.

NASA explained: "This is not a sunspot. It is the International Space Station (ISS) captured passing in front of the Sun.

"Sunspots, individually, have a dark central shadow, a lighter penumbra and no solar panel. In contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-turn mechanism, one of the largest and most sophisticated machines ever created by mankind.



ISS

"In addition, sunspots occur on the Sun, while the ISS rotates around the Earth."

You may think that sun transits would be quite unusual for the ISS, but that's not the case.

NASA added: "Transiting the sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which revolves around the Earth every 90 minutes or so, but it's rare to get timing and equipment perfect for a good image. "


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Apart from the ISS, the photo does not show any sunspots – dark spots on the sun's surface caused by strong magnetic field lines coming from inside the Sun.

NASA explained: "Sunspots are rare in the sun since the dawn of the current Solar Minimum, a period of low solar activity.

"For reasons that are not yet well understood, the number of sunspots occurring in both previous and current solar minima has been exceptionally low."

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