Time-lapse of astronaut Chris Cassidy working outside the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth.
Video credit: NASA Johnson
@wonderofscience What’s caring the shadows with soft edges? Most shadows in space have hard edges (which most SciFi CGI gets wrong) because there’s no air to diffuse the light. You can see that with the shadows the astronaut casts on the side of the station. But the ones from the station have soft edges, which I would expect to happen only if they are cast by something translucent. Maybe the edges of a solar panel?
EDIT: Also, looking at the angles, I wonder if it's light that's skimmed the atmosphere and been reflected that's cuasing some of the soft shadows?
I realise that this post may seem like a conspiracy theorist, but I am not claiming this is a fake, I am genuinely curious about how the light made those patterns because I am that kind of weird person.
The edges of shadows cast by the Sun appear soft because it is not a point source. This softness, called the penumbra, occurs where only part of a light source is obscured. As the shadow extends farther, the penumbra widens, making the transition between light and dark more gradual, which is why the astronauts' shadows appear sharper (near), but the solar array shadows appear soft (far).
Edit: I think the distant shadow may actually be Canadarm, and not a solar array.
https://kids.britannica.com/students/assembly/view/229835
I went looking for another good example of soft shadows in space and found this photo of the likely culprit from the video, Canadarm, photobombing with a fuzzy shadow.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/52580489065/
