Astronaut captured a photo from space that may never be repeated

(Patria) - Astronaut and passionate astrophotographer Donald Pettit recently shared a stunning photograph he took from the International Space Station (ISS) - a picture that can no longer be repeated today.

The question of why stars are not visible in many photos taken from the ISS is occasionally asked, although there are shots that show stars in the background, most photos only show darkness behind the Earth.

It is natural to assume that stars should be more visible from space, without the atmosphere interfering with the light. This is true, and it is precisely because of atmospheric distortion that we send telescopes into space. However, photographing stars, as anyone who has tried it from Earth knows, requires long exposure times to capture enough light. During that time, the camera must remain precisely aimed at the celestial object you are trying to photograph.

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A post shared by Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)

This was once possible on the ISS, as shown by a photograph Pettit took during his stay at the space station in 2003. That photograph shows the green glow of atomic oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and a multitude of stars. "At that time, the space station's orbital attitude was a solar inertial attitude (XPOP) that allowed the solar panels to be pointed at the Sun without tracking (Sun tracking was added to the ISS much later)," Pettit explained in an Instagram post. "Essentially, the station itself was the tracking mechanism, so for a camera mounted on the space station, a long exposure yielded stars as dots."

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A post shared by Don Pettit (@astro_pettit)