Astrophotographer snaps 'absolutely preposterous' photo of skydiver 'falling' past the sun's surface

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Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has snapped a striking shot of a skydiving YouTuber perfectly aligned with the fiery surface of the sun. The unlikely image, dubbed "The Fall of Icarus," required meticulous planning to pull off.

A close up image of the silhouette of a skydiver against the fiery surface of the sun
This striking photo shows a skydiver perfectly aligned with the sun's fiery surface, around 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth. (Image credit: Andrew McCarthy/cosmicbackground.io)

An astrophotographer has captured a spectacular shot of a falling skydiver perfectly aligned with the fiery surface of the sun, making it seem like the airborne adventurer is tumbling through the vacuum of space in front of our home star.

Andrew McCarthy, an Arizona-based astrophotographer who specializes in photographing the sun, captured the unlikely photo on Saturday (Nov. 8) at around 9 a.m. MST (11 am EST). The shot, dubbed "The Fall of Icarus," required an "absolutely preposterous" level of planning and "might be the first photo of its kind in existence," McCarthy wrote in a post on the social platform X.

"You can see the excitement on my face in the videos," McCarthy told Live Science. "Seeing it perfectly captured on my monitors was exhilarating."

The image was captured on the first and only jump of the day, McCarthy added. However, despite weeks of meticulous planning, it took six attempts to properly line up the aircraft with the sun. You can see the exact moment Clarke jumped in a video posted to X by McCarthy (see below).

Photo of the sun with the silhouette of a skydiver in front

It took six attempts to line up the aircraft with the sun before Brown finally made the leap. (Image credit: Andrew McCarthy/cosmicbackground.io)

"It was a narrow field of view, so it took several attempts to line up the shot," McCarthy added. "We only had one shot at the jump as repacking the parachute safely would take too long for another."

The biggest issue the pair faced was that the aircraft they used was a lot harder to reliably track through the sky than they first thought, McCarthy said. "Capturing the sun is something I'm quite familiar with, but this added new challenges."

McCarthy added that the new photo is comfortably one of the "top 5" he has taken during his career to date.

In the last few months, he has also captured other solar transit photos, including a "once-in-a-lifetime" shot of the International Space Station photobombing a solar flare and a SpaceX rocket appearing to cut through the solar disk.

In the past, he has also snapped an incredible shot of a 1-million-mile-long (1.6 million km) plasma plume erupting from the sun, as well as an ultra-high-definition photo of the lunar surface and a striking image of Mars being eclipsed by the moon.

Harry Baker
Harry Baker
Senior Staff Writer

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior and paleontology. His recent work on the solar maximum won "best space submission" at the 2024 Aerospace Media Awards and was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the NCTJ Awards for Excellence in 2023. He also writes Live Science's weekly Earth from space series.

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