NASA animation shows the International Space Station pass by the sun

It is the largest man-made object in orbit around our planet, but the International Space Station was dwarfed by the sun as it was captured passing in front of its surface.

This composite image, made from nine frames, shows the International Space Station, with a crew of three onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. 

It was taken by NASA photographer Joel Kowsky in Suffolk, Va.

 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 

The space station is 357 feet end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones. 

In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. 

The orbiting base has been the home of 230 people from 18 countries, who have used its unique conditions to conduct scientific research.

Onboard the station are Commander Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. 

Onboard the station are Commander Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. 

The trio will soon be joined by Nick Hague of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, who are scheduled to launch on October 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:40 a.m. EDT (2:40 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on a four-orbit, six-hour journey to dock to the station at 10:44 a.m.

230 individuals from 18 countries have visited the International Space Station since it was blasted into orbit, and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000.

An international crew of six people usually live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes.

In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.

The space station is 357 feet end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones. 

Space-gazers can catch a glimpse of the ISS from their own back yards thanks to an interactive tool from NASA.

NASA’s ‘Spot the Station’ website tells people when the ISS will be able to be seen from their own city, how long it should be visible and at what point in the sky.

This composite image, made from nine frames, shows the International Space Station, with a crew of three onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018

‘It is the third brightest object in the sky and easy to spot if you know when to look up,’ the NASA website explained.

‘Visible to the naked eye, it looks like a fast-moving plane only much higher and traveling thousands of miles an hour faster!’ 

HOW YOU CAN SEE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 

Space-gazers can catch a glimpse of the ISS from their own back yards thanks to an interactive tool from Nasa.

Nasa’s ‘Spot the Station’ website tells people when the ISS will be able to be seen from their own city, how long it should be visible and at what point in the sky.

The space station is only visible for a few minutes at a time as it speeds past, travelling at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour.

‘My advice would be to visit Heavens Above, or better yet get their app for your phone, and look at the star charts there,’ Sam Spencer, amateur astronomer and president of Durham University’s Astronomical Society told MailOnline.

‘It’ll plot out the trajectory the space station will take at a particular time and date. 

‘It moves very quickly, it’ll probably be visible for less than a minute, so I’d advise you either use the naked eye to see it, or a DSLRcamera on a tripod with a wide angle lens (18mm) set to take ten second exposures continuously at high ISO.’

Use the module below or visit the website to see when the ISS will be visible from your city 

 

Scientists from Nasa previously released an image of the ISS flying across the surface of the moon.

Nasa photographers Bill Ingalls and Joel Kowsky captured the fleeting moment from Woodford, Virginia, as it took the ISS just 0.82 of a second to pass in front of the pockmarked lunar terrain.

Together they then managed to take nine frames of the space station as it passed in front of the dusty plains of the moon’s surface.

Nasa photographers tried for several years to capture an image of the International Space station passing in front of the moon and they found success in 2015. In the image above they stitched together nine frames to show the path the ISS took as it passed in front of the lunar surface

Nasa photographers tried for several years to capture an image of the International Space station passing in front of the moon and they found success in 2015. In the image above they stitched together nine frames to show the path the ISS took as it passed in front of the lunar surface

Although bigger than a football pitch, the ISS was dwarfed by the crater covered surface of the moon as it passed in front of it. The space station is a small silhouette just above the large crater in the image above

Although bigger than a football pitch, the ISS was dwarfed by the crater covered surface of the moon as it passed in front of it. The space station is a small silhouette just above the large crater in the image above

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