The Space Station Crosses a Spotless Sun
			
		
		
			Image Credit & Copyright:  
Rainee Colacurcio
		
		
			That's no sunspot.
It's the 
International Space Station (ISS) 
caught passing in front of the Sun.
Sunspots, individually, have a dark central 
umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and 
no solar panels. 
By contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-spired mechanism, 
one of the largest and most sophisticated machines ever created by 
humanity.  
Also, sunspots occur on the 
Sun, 
whereas the 
ISS orbits the 
Earth.  
Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the 
ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, 
but getting one's timing and equipment just right for a 
great image is rare.
 
Strangely, besides that fake spot, in this recent two-image composite, the Sun  
lacked any real sunspots.  
The featured picture combines two images -- one capturing the space station transiting the Sun --  and another taken consecutively capturing details of the Sun's surface. 
Sunspots have been 
rare on the 
Sun 
since the dawn of the current 
Solar Minimum, 
a period of low solar activity.
For reasons not yet fully understood, the 
number of sunspots occurring during both the previous and current solar minima have been 
unusually low.