Astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Tom Williams have published a series of fascinating images. They demonstrate the transit of the ISS against the background of the Sun.
The pictures were taken on April 4, 2023. In order to capture the ISS, the photographers used a combination of several telescopes and special filters that transmit light only at a certain wavelength.
In the photos of Andrew McCarthy, the ISS “poses” against the background of a group of sunspots. They arise due to the release of magnetic fields into the photosphere, which suppress the movement of matter, which leads to a decrease in temperature by 1500 – 2000 degrees. A cooler area emitting less energy is perceived as a dark spot against the background of the rest of the solar surface.
In the picture of Tom Williams, the ISS is adjacent to the prominence. This is the name of a plasma cluster that is held above the solar surface by a magnetic field. The height of the largest such structures can reach 1.7 million km, which is larger than the diameter of the Sun.
Earlier we talked about a giant coronal hole on the Sun, which would fit 20 Earths.
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