A Stormy View from Space

There are times a single photo from space makes me stop and truly gawk. This is one of those times.

The photo above was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on July 4, 2013. It shows the Sun low to the horizon, illuminating storm clouds off the coast of Brazil. There are two clues the Sun is low. One is that the reflected sunlight off the ocean is near the horizon. The horizon is thousands of kilometers away from the space station, so this picture was taken with the astronaut facing more out than down. The only way to see the Sun reflecting off the water from that angle is if itâs near the horizon too.

Thatâs a bit tricky to picture, but happily thereâs a more obvious clue: The cloud shadows are very, very long; thatâs clearest on the left side of the picture. Long shadows means the Sun was either rising or setting, but either way it was low to the horizon at the time.

Also, see how the clouds on the left cast shadows that point down and to the left, while the clouds on the right have shadows that point down and to the right? Thatâs an illusion, caused by perspective! Those shadows are all very nearly parallel, and only appear slanted because the camera collapses three dimensional information into two. Our brains do this too, but we tend to ignore it, folding it up into the way we perceive the world. If youâve ever seen railroad tracks appear to converge in the distance, then youâve seen this illusion. This also tangentially plays into the Moon Illusion as wellâwhen the Moon looks huge as it rises or sets. Our brains try to judge size and distance using subtle clues, and tend to get them screwed up.

Speaking of the Moon, a lot of people who say the Apollo Moon landings were faked claim that non-parallel shadows in the pictures show the photos taken by the astronauts were hoaxed. This photo shows they are wrongâ¦and the best part is that this photo was itself taken from space.

Ah, irony. It can be both delicious and exquisitely beautiful.