this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
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A NASA astronaut may have just taken the best photo from space—ever - "During his third stay in orbit, Pettit is absolutely killing it."

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] #space #science #nasa #astronomy

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

I reflexively hated the light streaks at first, but then I thought about it and realized I’ve never seen the speed of ISS orbit represented in a photo before and that’s kinda cool, especially juxtaposed with the Milky Way detail that was only possible with the very same long exposure that produce the streaks.

Idk. Space usually looks pretty still and tranquil, so having that and a sense of fast movement in the same shot is pretty cool I guess.

“Best ever” though? Hell, what does that even mean? It’s a cool photo, let’s just leave it at that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some context for those of you who are confused as to why this picture is impressive.

https://www.universetoday.com/170146/astronaut-don-pettit-is-serious-he-rigged-up-astrophotography-gear-on-the-iss/

The ISS rotates around the earth every 90 minutes, so before Don Pettit brought a custom built astrophotography rig up there this picture would have been impossible to take.

It's weird that Eric Burger neglected to put this picture into perspective for people who aren't 100% up to date on their space news.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

@[email protected] Thank you for linking to this!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

best photo from space—ever

That's really subjective.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@[email protected] Extremely subjective but that's the title :P

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

That's highly debatable

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Musk. Ruining politics, social media, astronomy, and astrophotography simultaneously.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A long enough exposure to capture the movement of the earth underneath, without being long enough for the perspective on the stars to change.

tl; dr: one helluva exercise in juuuust the right exposure length.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

And even right before the sun came into view. Awesome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

@admin @[email protected] @[email protected] @space

WOW! Amazing. Thank you for the explainer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Obviously fake, the earth should be flat in this photo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That orange line is the wall around it, man!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, the only thing we were wrong about was the ice wall, it turns out it's an orange ice wall

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

What a dumbass it’s not even in focus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Uhm...I'ma have to disagree on that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

"In this image, one can see the core of the Milky Way galaxy, zodiacal light (sunlight diffused by interplanetary dust), streaks of SpaceX Starlink satellites, individual stars, an edge-on view of the atmosphere that appears in burnt umber due to hydroxide emissions, a near-sunrise just over the horizon, and nighttime cities appearing as streaks."

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

Thot filter. Lol