Subscribe Sign in

APOD: 2026 September 22 – Chance Triple Alignment: Plane, Space Station, Sun

1 min read Rewritten in plain language

Apod

Show what we removed Rules applied: A1×2 D3×2 E3×2 F2 all 30 rules
  • Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
  • Sunspots typically last for weeks and were expected, since these spots were seen previously.
  • Just as this exposure was taking place in June, from Prasek in the Czech Republic, an airplane began its own miniature partial eclipse.
  • APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: open space

4 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

Explanation: This shot captured a silhouette. Just as this exposure was taking place in June, from Prasek in the Czech Republic, an airplane began its own miniature partial eclipse.

The report’s most important sentence, shortened and in plain words. How

Headline check

There is nothing in this headline a machine can check against the report: no figure, no name and no quotation.

Nothing was measured here, so nothing is claimed. How this is checked

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Explanation: This shot captured a silhouette. Which is it? It isn't the sunspots, the small dark regions caused by concentrated magnetic field s visible around the Sun's bright disk. Sunspots typically last for weeks and were expected, since these spots were seen previously. It isn’t the International Space Station (ISS), the small dark structure on the middle left. This is because the featured picture was planned with sub-second timing to record the structure passing before the Sun. It is the airplane. Just as this exposure was taking place in June, from Prasek in the Czech Republic, an airplane began its own miniature partial eclipse. The result is this triply aligned image of our Sun. The photographer estimates that the chance of any random Sun image containing silhouettes of both a space station and an airplane, from that location, is about 30 million to one. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow's picture: open space

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is NASA's report with its verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingHappiness
NASAas they published this story 19.2 18 23 50
Mundane Readneutralized from NASA 16.2 16 23 50

Sign in to react.

Comments

Nothing here yet.

Sign in to comment.

Questions

Readers can ask a question about this story here. Questions and answers are for subscribers. Sign in to read them.

Comments are read before they appear where anything in them needs a person to look. Nothing posted here is ever deleted; a comment taken down keeps its text and the reason, so the decision can be looked at again. How this works