Image: ISS Transits the Sun

(PhysOrg.com) -- Thilo Kranz, a staff member at DLR, the German Space Agency, took this image of the transit of the International Space Station ISS with Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-132 mission.

Kranz photographed "the ISS as it passed across the solar disk in just 0.51 seconds ...

At this time, preparations for undocking of space shuttle Atlantis during its final mission, STS-132, were ongoing. You can see the still docked shuttle in the 11 o'clock position.

Also, you may recognise the solar panels and the large radiators. In the full resolution version of this image, you can also see the Soyuz capsule. Close to the centre of the sun, a group of sunspots is visible."