May 16 2009Outerspace Eye Candy: Space Shuttle And Hubble Telescope Silhouetted Against Sun
This is a photo of the space shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Space Telescope silhouetted against the sun. It really made me think about stuff. You know, like outerspace and all that. I'm really deep.
The exceptionally gifted astrophotographer Thierry Legault captured this stunning tableau just minutes before the crew of Atlantis caught up with and captured Hubble for its very last servicing mission on May 13, 2009. This shot has never been accomplished before, and it's magnificent. He used a 13 cm telescope, and camera that took a series of 16 images of 1/8000th of second each.
Awesome image, Thierry. Reminds me of the time I bet the sun I could beat it in a staring contest and kicked its shiny ass. And that, my friends, is why I'm so bright.
Hit the jump for a couple more shots, one of which may or may not look like Pac-Man from behind.
Check. This. Out. Amazing photo of the Sun... [discover]
Thanks to Dustin, who once flew too close to the sun and melted because he was made of milk chocolate. That was pretty foolish of you, Dustin.
Related Stories
Dude -- Compared To Our Galaxy, We're Just Like, Little Ants Man. Little Ants That Are High (05/22/2009)
Hubble Captures Disk Galaxy From The Side (11/09/2010)
Mother Nature, You're A Trip: Aurora Photo (09/21/2010)
Awesome Composite Shot Of Total Eclipse (02/16/2010)
Reader Comments
1. rff - May 16, 2009 5:10 PM
FIRST
2. Aids - May 16, 2009 5:11 PM
My dinosaur Ship will cover the entire sun up.
http://std-aids.mybrute.com
3. Fadm Notbob - May 16, 2009 5:16 PM
i saw this in the paper like 30 minutes ago.
OLD!
4. no offence - May 16, 2009 5:20 PM
No offence but this site just gets shitter and shitter by day..It used to be good but now it is just plain RUBBISH!!! DO SOMETHING OTHERWISE IM DELETING IT AS MY FAVOURITE!!! thats means Ill never visit again..Sorry just being honest and I think some others agree aswell!
5. Jam - May 16, 2009 5:23 PM
@4, actually I love it.
6. naas - May 16, 2009 5:25 PM
looks like a giant yellow balloon with some dirt on it
7. Brianna - May 16, 2009 5:27 PM
they have a way better picture of it on Nasa's flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531410425/
8. GWgroupie - May 16, 2009 5:35 PM
@4 please do us a favour, delete this sight... or stop commenting. Its like farting in a room full of strangers
9. depuis - May 16, 2009 5:43 PM
I miss the old Geekologie Writer too =[
10. Nightfall - May 16, 2009 5:50 PM
This site rocks and that picture is amazing.
http://nightbringer101.mybrute.com
11. Lauren - May 16, 2009 6:00 PM
The sun looks delicious.
12. Watch-303 - May 16, 2009 6:03 PM
cool! didn't know this could be done!
13. formerly SPELLINGNAZI© - May 16, 2009 6:14 PM
@4: You won't be missed.
Awesome pics...I think I might take Astronomy next term.
14. aSsss - May 16, 2009 6:17 PM
@14 - take astronomy. totally worth it! i never felt more like inconsequential dirt then i did sitting in astronomy class.
that sun looks like a pie to me... yum, pie..
15. Dustin - May 16, 2009 6:18 PM
Foolish INDEED!
16. Kieren - May 16, 2009 6:24 PM
@ 4 you suck not the site.
These pictures are pretty cool I'll take 9!
17. turtoise - May 16, 2009 6:25 PM
was there an old GW ?
18. Where's my Super Suit? - May 16, 2009 7:47 PM
@4 OMG!! NO! Delete a site from your favourites? You...you...animal!!
*runs off sobbing*
19. bensation - May 16, 2009 7:49 PM
ditto turtoise?
20. Boost - May 16, 2009 7:53 PM
Those are really amazing photographs.
And I'm sure that most of the people that read the internets are smart individuals, I feel the need to point out that the size comparison is off-base by quite a bit.
If that shuttle were the earth, that's about how big the sun would be.
/probably
21. Pekod - May 16, 2009 9:25 PM
Exactly. For clarity. It's not to scale, the sun is significantly bigger than that. Orders of magnitude bigger. There's no way in hell you could see any manmade object against a backdrop of the surface of the sun! It would be a miniscule fraction of a single pixel. And the sun is extremely small as far as stars go.
22. turtle that likes shoes - May 16, 2009 10:25 PM
@4 FLAMER THIS SITE ROCKS
@9 ROFL
23. turtle that likes shoes - May 16, 2009 10:26 PM
@22 BUT YOU GOT to remember that the shuttle is closer to the earth than the sun is so it might look bigger
24. Heather - May 16, 2009 11:32 PM
Wow...the universe makes me feel so insignificant.
Of course, I ALWAYS feel insignificant, but still... :)
25. Blah - May 17, 2009 12:04 AM
it reminds me of a boob
26. Fake - May 17, 2009 5:23 AM
So somebody took an image of the sun and used Microsoft Paint to black out a few pixels in the rough shape of the shuttle...
27. thechevron - May 17, 2009 6:11 AM
@4
I agree, used to visit 3 or 4 times a day waiting on updates, now I visit about onced a week just to make sure I haven't missed anything.
most of the articles are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
28. Rhialto - May 17, 2009 7:07 AM
Hola!
29. Galtacticus - May 17, 2009 7:47 AM
speechless! This is one of those "religious" moments captured.Kudos to the photographer as well.Imagine the amount of work to get the almost impossible perfect shot with limited time! Not special but real effects!
30. Captain - May 17, 2009 7:52 AM
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://captain-hash.mybrute.com
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31. $.02 and a pocket full of FAH-Q - May 17, 2009 10:27 AM
@ 4 & 28 - Egads you whiny bitches. Instead of complaining and trolling with your idle threats of not coming back, just go whine somewhere else.
32. abigsliceofpie - May 17, 2009 12:30 PM
"silhouetted against sun" is not really the right description here. It's more accurate to say that they are silhouetted against the earth. You are not looking at the shadow of the shuttle/Hubble on the sun, but rather their shadow on the earth. I know, like, that's some deep shit. This reversal in thinking should also clear up some of the size arguments (mine is bigger).
33. scurl - May 17, 2009 1:13 PM
this reminds me of when i got a dozen eggs from a farm, broke one open and found a chunk of beak in it. yum!.
34. Daisy - May 17, 2009 1:28 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max built a spaceship for his science project at school. He told his teacher he wanted to fly it to the sun. His teacher said - the sun is hot, like a million degrees farenheit. Max said, thats ok, I'm planning on going at night.
35. brute - May 18, 2009 3:22 AM
Come and fight ... join Brute:
http://burpnassker.mybrute.com
36. Quik - May 18, 2009 2:33 PM
@21 and 22
Yeah, nothing manmade can even begin to cover up even a speck of the sun's light... Oh wait, I can cover it up with my thumb. My thumb must be ginormous!
37. Captain - May 19, 2009 10:57 AM
MUST SEE!!
http://captain-hash.mybrute.com
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;)