Eclipse TransitNever fear, this shot of the sun during Tuesday's partial solar eclipse didn't reveal an invasion by the Empire—the tiny silhouette near the top of the solar disk is no TIE fighter, but the International Space Station.Taken from the Muscat region of Oman, the shot includes several layers of cosmic distance: the sun at about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth, the moon at 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers), and the ISS at 310 miles (500 kilometers). (See more pictures of this week's solar eclipse.)
Photograph courtesy Thierry Legault

Space Pictures This Week: Fiery Eclipse, Blue Lagoon, More

The space station makes an eclipse cameo, streams of dust carve a nebula, blue fans decorate Mars, and more in the week's best space pictures.

January 8, 2011