Explanation:
That's no sunspot.
On the upper right of the above image of the Sun, the dark patches are actually the
International Space Station (ISS) and the
Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission
STS-132.
In the past, many
skygazers
have spotted the space station and space shuttles as bright
stars gliding through
twilight skies, still
glinting in the
sunlight while orbiting about 200 kilometers above the
Earth's surface.
But here, astrophotographer
Thierry Lagault
accurately computed the occurrence of a rarer opportunity to
record
the spacefaring combination
moving quickly
in silhouette across the solar disk.
He snapped the
above picture on last Sunday on May 16,
about 50 minutes before the shuttle docked with the space station.
Atlantis was recently
launched to the ISS for its last mission before being retired.
