It is not easy to take a picture of the International Space Station (ISS), orbiting Earth at a speed of about 28,000 kilometers per hour, from below. An Astrophysicist recently managed to capture a rare photograph of the ISS passing over a Colosseum in Rome.
Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, who runs the Virtual Telescope Project, captured the International Space Station atop the Colosseum on December 6. His work was supported by the Parco Archeologico del Colossio, the Archaeological Museum of Rome. The picture was taken from the ground up towards the open sky with the walls of the historic Colosseum Amphitheater also visible in it.
In the picture, the ISS can be seen as a streak of light in the darkening sky. Masi said that seeing the starry sky with thousand-year-old walls, showing ancient constellations as well as the modern space station, was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
The meeting of the 2000-year-old Colosseum with the 20-year-old ISS depicts the distance man has covered from the past to the present
#GiornataNazionaledelloSpazio: here it is one of the events by @ParcoColosseo and @VirtualTelescop, sharing the transit of the @Space_Station above the legendary Colosseum. A unique image @astro_matthias @AstroMarshburn @Astro_Sabot @Astro_Raja
?more: https://t.co/OQCdrqUwVM pic.twitter.com/1C4EwmoX4q
— Gianluca Masi (@masi_gianluca) December 16, 2021