Astronaut of the International Space Station (ISS) Samantha Cristoforetti has published a magnificent video in which the Sun does not set at all. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency shared the footage on Twitter on June 9.
“In certain seasons, for example, at the beginning of May, the plane of our orbit is such that we are never shaded by the Earth, which means that the Sun never sets for the ISS,” commented Cristoforetti.
In “high-beta” seasons, like back in early May, the plane of our orbit is such that we never get shadowed by the Earth, which means that the Sun never really sets. Take a look! #MissionMinerva @esa @esaspaceflight @ESA_EO @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/2t0WrX3ib0
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) June 9, 2022
For several weeks before or after the summer solstice in both hemispheres, the station remains flooded with sunlight as it rotates around the Earth. This phenomenon occurs when an orbiting object largely coincides with the so-called “terminator line” separating the illuminated side of the planet from the unlit side.
Since the space station rotates around the Earth at a speed of about 28.3 thousand km/h, there are 16 sunsets and sunrises on the station every day. This feature negatively affects astronauts during long spacewalks, as they have to deal with constantly changing lighting conditions.
Samantha Cristoforetti and her exciting videos
Italian-born Samantha Cristoforetti arrived at the space station in April 2022 as part of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which will last six months. Among her teammates are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and Robert Hines. All of them complement the crew of the 67th ISS expedition.
Samantha Cristoforetti is an active user of social networks and even became the first space “tiktoker”. Moreover, at Eurovision 2022, where Ukraine won, the astronaut even supported the international competition by unfolding a poster on board the ISS.
Recall that earlier Cristoforetti showed a fascinating photo of a lunar eclipse shown from space.
Follow us on Twitter to get the most interesting space news in time
https://twitter.com/ust_magazine
