This composite of seven images taken in less than one second shows the International Space Station in silhouette against the sun as it passes above the Deseret News' office in Salt Lake City on Thursday. According to NASA, the station is the largest human made object ever to orbit the Earth. It measures 357 feet end to end, which is almost the length of a football field including the end zones, and weighs almost a million pounds. The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. It completes 15.54 orbits per day. The station's first component was launched into low-Earth orbit in 1998, and it can often be seen with the naked eye. Several times a week, Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston determines sighting opportunities for more than 6,700 locations worldwide. To look up viewing times log on to spotthestation.nasa.gov.
See the world through the eyes of award-winning photojournalists. Click through the gallery above to view the unique images our visual storytellers captured today. Don't forget to follow the official Deseret News Instagram account for more photographs and videos from the staff.