ISS sails across the sun, NASA photographer captures image made from six frames

NASA has captured a rare time-lapse photograph of the International Space Station (ISS) as it passed between the Earth and the Sun. According to reports, NASA photographer Joel Kowsky captured the progression of the ISS as it orbited 400 kilometers above Earth from the ground in Fredericksburg, Virginia on June 24. 

According to NASA, the image is a composite made from six frames that shows the ISS in silhouette as it moved from right to left across the solar disk. Photographer Kowsky captured the photos at approximately 1:15 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. Further, the transit lasted for approximately 0.54 seconds. Reportedly, the ISS circles the Earth every 90 minutes as it flies at eight kilometers per second, giving the crew members on the ISS an experience of 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period. 

According to Kowsky, while several websites help identify when the ISS will be transiting the Sun, the weather and timing are usually the main issues for shooting clear photos. Earlier in August 2017, NASA had published images of the ISS crossing the Sun. 

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NASA captures the sun's 10-year time lapse

Capturing 10 years of the 4.6 billion-year-old Sun in an hour and a half, NASA on June 24 released a  time-lapse video recorded from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Reportedly, the SDO gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun, approximately 20 million gigabytes of data over the past 10 years which the NASA compiled in footage and released on its official website. The footage was captured between June 2, 2010, to June 1, 2020. In the footage, NASA revealed that each day for the sun is every second on the video. Further, NASA titled the footage as “A Decade of Sun”.  

(Image credit: NASA)

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