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Universe Today has some great shots from the latest Shuttle mission, including (a much bigger version of) this shot of the ISS, surely the most beautiful of the station yet taken. It’s well worth your time to peruse the pix.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
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March 29th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
New desktop wallpaper!
March 29th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I already said it over there, but I repeat it here:
I think, somehow the station looks like the flying spaghetti monster
March 29th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Looks ‘shopped to me
March 29th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
What is the ring you can see on the right side of the image? Part of the shuttle?
March 29th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Ooooo … nice.
I have a bit of trouble interpreting the image though. Is that the earth’s atmosphere lit up and making that blue line? What’s the gray crescent on the right; is that part of the viewing port? How was the ISS lit up to take the shot?
The other pics are great too; with the space-walking astronauts in the picture you get some sense of how huge this thing is.
March 29th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
@madscientist…
1: yes.
2: yes.
3: sun.
March 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
And I now have a new desktop background
March 29th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
WOW! Best desktop background ever!
March 29th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Personally I went ahead and added a Carl Sagan quote for my background:
“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Gotta love Carl
March 29th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
If I didn’t live in a huge, light-polluted megalopolis I’d go out now and again to have a look at the ISS. It’s just one of those things I consider to be Coolness.
March 29th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Like I always say…Look what mankind can do! Amazing!
March 29th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
@DLC
DLC, go have a look anyway. I’m in the middle of South-Central LA, and it’s incredibly easy to find when it goes overhead, it was even an assignment for my first astronautics class.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:08 am
@mk:
Sun, sure, but what’s the geometry? The sun would light up the side of the station which we don’t see – I guess the solar panels can be golden through transmitted sunlight; after all the rest of the station is not well-lit. Another option is the moon providing lighting – but I just don’t know enough to figure it all out.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Looks like pegs on clothesline to me
March 30th, 2009 at 1:22 am
For MadScientist:
All the ‘lit’ parts of the station facing the camera are from reflected sunlight. Some of it scattered by the solar arrays, but it’s more because all the station modules are covered in semi-gloss aluminum panels (except for Columbus which has a much more reflective/shiny finish to its panels). Also, much of the truss has very bright white MLI coverings that add to the reflected sunlight brightness.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Superb pictures. We’ve had some very clear skies over Guernsey, English Channel, in the past week & the ISS has been spectacularly bright. Watching through binoculars gives a great demonstration of its speed as it whizzes past the background stars. Incredible.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Just noticed on picture 007753 (the one with both crews in Harmony), that there is a sign indicating direction to Centrifuge Accomodations Module (arrow described CAM poitning up)
Harmony was launched long after CAM was scrapped… so why leave the sign? Not to mention, I am pissed by the fact CAM was scrapped…
I wonder if in Serenity there’ll be a sign pointing to never-would-be TransHab module
March 30th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Wicked photo BA. Another to add to my rotating wallpaper collection.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:59 am
@ TS,
Yeah, Pegs, Heavvvvyyy.
Ivan.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Beautiful image! I believe the arc on the right is the edge of the window through which the picture was taken. You can see how the arc of the earth’s atmosphere ends there.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
I like how in the pic of the astronaut Ricky Arnold, you can see in the reflection, the rear end of the space shuttle candidly sticking out from behind the astronaut taking the picture. Probably one of the few pictures where the shuttle was captured on photo by accident. It really makes it feel like a real-life sci-fi TV show, (contradiction, I know) is taking place right above us.