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National Schools' Observatory. QKbeG.jpg (700×5717) A blot on the Sunscape. See that big orange sphere in the image above? That's the Sun (obviously). But do you see that tiny black splodge in front of it? It's not the splattered remains of an interstellar Daddy Longlegs, it's actually the International Space Station as photographed from the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The stunning image of the ISS silhouetted against the Sun was taken on the Orbiter's approach to the space station. You can see the station in a bit more detail below. The strange marbled effect you see on the Sun's surface are convection cells (possibly more than 1,000km wide) where pockets of super-heated plasma rise to the surface, cool and fall back down again.

How cool is that! Sky. Mars. Moon. Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky. JHelioviewer. SkyServer Famous Places. Footagevault.com | Stock Footage | Film Archive | Footage Library | High Definition HD | Footage Vault | Space Footage | In the Shadow of the Moon | Moon Landings | Space | Apollo | NASA.