“Lost — yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.” –Horace Mann
The beauty of a sunset (or sunrise) is rare and unique, happening but once a day for those of us on Earth. But aboard a spacecraft like the ISS, these are sights that happen sixteen times a day.
Image credit: NASA / Karen Nyberg / ISS Expedition 36/37.
And while we’re used to dramatic, slow sunsets where it takes between two and three minutes simply for the Sun’s disk to drop below the horizon, it takes mere seconds for the Sun to go from a barely-visible red glow to a brilliant, blinding white. In the space of a few breaths, the entire thing is over, a sight that only around 500 people have ever experienced firsthand.
Images credit: NASA Earth Observatory / STS-107 / Space Shuttle Columbia; stitching by E. Siegel. (Astronaut photographs STS107-E-05072,STS107-E-05075, and STS107-E-05080.)
Come get the story of sunsets (and sunrises) in space on Mostly Mute Monday!
Zazzle Space market place
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