No, this is not a new model Jedi TIE Fighter -- it's the very real International Space Station passing across the field-of-view of a German Earth-watching satellite known as TerraSar-X .
This radar image, taken last March, shows how smooth surfaces, like the station's solar wings and radiator panels, tend to deflect, rather than reflect, the satellite's radar beams, which cause these features to appear dark in the image above. The central truss of the station, to which all the modules are attached, has a grid structure, with lots of reflective surfaces.
Resolution of this image is about 39 inches, or one meter, which means that objects smaller than that can't be individually resolved, but become merged together as a single block on the radar image. Since this picture was taken, the station has grown with the addition of Japan's Kibo laboratory and outdoor porch, a final piece of structural truss and solar panel wings, the last U.S. connecting hub and a seven-sided viewing port known as the cupola.
Credit: DLR
Tags: Space Station
comments ( )