The Chinese Space Station looks like a TIE fighter in front of the Death Star in this sun photo


posted Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 12:48 PM EDT


Last week, we shared a photo of the International Space Station looking like the Starship Enterprise as it cruised past the moon. Now, here's a shot of the Chinese Space Station (CSS) moving past the sun and it brings to mind another famous science fiction series. Yes, Star Wars nerds, the CSS looks a lot like a TIE fighter heading back to the Death Star in the shot below.

The image of the CSS (which is also known as Tiangong-1, meaning "Heavenly Palace 1") was captured on June 16th by astrophotographer Thierry Legault in southern France. You can see a larger version of it here.

The solar transit photo actually shows China's Shenzou-10 spacecraft docked with the CSS, which creates the H-shaped resemblance to a TIE fighter from Star Wars. According to Bad Astronomy, the entire transit of the CSS across the sun took less than half a second. Legault shot 17 different frames of the station, using a hydrogen-alpha filter in front of his camera to accentuate the hot plasma on the sun's surface.

(Via Gizmodo)