Photograph Shows International Space Station Traversing the Fiery Surface of the Sun

This amazing photo of the International Space Station (ISS) quickly passing across the Sun’s surface was taken by astrophotographer Miguel Claro.

On June 2, Claro took this amazing picture from Figueira da Foz on Portugal’s northern coast.

Using a high-speed video camera with 109 frames per second, he took many pictures of the International Space Station (ISS) as it rocketed through space at 4.5 miles per second (7.31 kilometers per second), approximately 274 miles (441.5 kilometers) from Earth.

Claro clarifies that the ISS photos were processed separately and weren’t layered in a piece for Space.com.

“I was amazed at the level of quality attained using just one frame,” he remarks.

Claro employs a “inversion technique” to analyze the Sun’s chromosphere, which is observable in H-alpha radiation and gives the ISS a white appearance. Prior to chromosphere enhancement, an image of the International Space Station (ISS) appears dark.

Claro writes for Space, “It’s interesting that you can make out the unique structures of the ISS in the picture.”

In fact, tremendous jets of gas rising from the Sun’s outer atmosphere and a sizable sunspot-an active area on the surface of Earth’s nearest star-as well as the spacecraft’s solar panels and modules are visible.

The ISS was visible to Claro for just 0.54 seconds during its transit. The Apollo-M Max, manufactured by Player One Astronomy, was utilized by the Portuguese astrophotographer to meet this objective. The camera captures 16-bit pictures at a rate of 109 per second. About two seconds make up the entire video, during which 200 pictures were taken.

Claro states that “every 90 minutes, the International Space Station completes an orbit around Earth.”

“The massive artificial satellite that circles our planet is 356 feet (108.5 meters) wide and is carrying astronauts on board.

With an angular diameter of 62.58′′, the International Space Station appears quite huge in the sky, but in comparison to the vast solar disc, which has an angular dimension of 31.6′, it appears very little. Because of this, the Sun seems to be about 30.3 times larger than the ISS in this picture.