Astronomy Picture of the Day - Shuttle Over Earth

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 17 Apr, 2022 | Image Credit: NASA, Expedition 22 Crew

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: What's that approaching? Astronauts on board the International Space Station in 2010 first saw it far in the distance. Soon it enlarged to become a dark silhouette. As it came even closer, the silhouette appeared to be a spaceship. Finally, the object revealed itself to be the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and it soon docked as expected with the Earth-orbiting space station. Pictured here, Endeavour was imaged near Earth's horizon as it approached, where several layers of the Earth's atmosphere were visible. Directly behind the shuttle is the mesosphere, which appears blue. The atmospheric layer that appears white is the stratosphere, while the orange layer is Earth's Troposphere. Together, these thin layers of air -- collectively spanning less than 2 percent of Earth's radius -- sustain us all in many ways, including providing oxygen to breath and a barrier to dangerous radiations from space.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[BenLurkin]

Wow!

[Telepathic Intruder]

"...including providing oxygen to breath and a barrier to dangerous radiations from space."

As well as pressure to keep the blood, piss, spit, and other disgusting fluids from boiling out our orifices. But I'm sure that was implied.

[AFB-XYZ]

Except that "breath" is a noun, & "breathe" is a verb and has an "E" on the end. Naughty naughty poster before you. Heh. :-)

[Telepathic Intruder]

Hey, good catch. Even NASA can make mistakes.

[real saxophonist]

A few years ago, I saw the Shuttle and ISS fly over just after they had undocked. They were about 30 seconds apart.

[AFB-XYZ]

Grammar Nazi-ism is extremely rare in me. But this one was too good to pass up!

Best, AFB-XYZ

[doorgunner69]

Think I saw the same around 2006-2007. One a lot more bright than the other. Still fairly close to each other.

[real saxophonist]

Yeah, the Station was the brighter one.

[SES1066]

For the mathematically inclined amongst us, just think what the volume is of this “collectively spanning less than 2 percent of Earth’s radius”!