Orbiting at an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth, astronauts on board the World Area Station (ISS) get an remarkable view of the cosmos resting above the planet’s horizon. Hoping to benefit from the gap station’s window to the skies, NASA astronaut Don Pettit got here ready for his ISS challenge, packing a monitoring software that’s been serving to him seize long-exposure pictures of surrounding stars and galaxies.
In a contemporary put up on X, Pettit shared a photograph he had captured from the window of the SpaceX Dragon group spacecraft, docked to the ISS. The picture displays a celestial box plagued by stars, and two galaxies from the Milky Method’s native workforce. “I flew a home-made monitoring software that permits time exposures required to {photograph} superstar fields,” Pettit wrote on X. “Keep tuned for extra footage like this.” Pettit’s home-made superstar tracker, a motorized mount that sits between a digital camera and a tripod to counteract the movement of the celebs, is relatively spectacular. It permits us to look a transparent view of the celebs from low-Earth orbit as a substitute of the in most cases blurry pictures captured from the ISS.
In area, you’ll be able to see stars! I flew a home-made monitoring software that permits time exposures required to {photograph} superstar fields.
Keep tuned for extra footage like this. %.twitter.com/OO57o4oU8l — Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) December 5, 2024 The 2 galactic figures are of the Huge Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, in keeping with LiveScience. They’re each some of the Milky Method’s closest neighbors, and will also be noticed within the evening skies from the southern hemisphere.
The Huge Magellanic Cloud is a satellite tv for pc galaxy positioned round 160,000 gentle years clear of Earth, and it incorporates round 30 billion stars. Its smaller counterpart, the Small Magellanic Cloud, is a dwarf galaxy with about 3 billion stars. It’s slight additional away, positioned about 210,000 gentle years clear of Earth. Each galaxies are believed to behave as galactic satellites, orbiting round our Milky Method galaxy because it travels in the course of the cosmos. Pettit’s symbol of the 2 galaxies side-by-side places the universe in standpoint. This isn’t the astronaut’s first strive at beaming down perspectives from the ISS. Previous this month, Pettit captured what he known as “cosmic fireflies,” floating out of doors the gap station, which have been in truth Starlink satellites reflecting daylight.
The NASA astronaut introduced to the ISS in September, driving on board a Russian Soyuz group pill as a part of the Expedition 72 challenge. At 69 years outdated, Pettit is the oldest lively astronaut at NASA, logging in additional than 370 days in area and over 13 hours of spacewalk time, in keeping with NASA. Having spent all that point in area, the astronaut remains to be curious concerning the surrounding cosmos and he’s taking us alongside for the trip.
