Although the above image has been circulating as a "photograph" of "sunset at the North Pole", it is a purely digital creation. As far as we know it is a work entitled "Hideaway" produced by a 22-year-old German astrophysics student named Inga Nielson using
Terragin scenery rendering software.
"Hideaway" was featured as the NASA'S
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for the 20th June 2006.
(good info here by the way)
Inga Nielsen has also published a news update about how the artwork gained its urban legend status. According to the artist, someone "cut out my name, called the image "Sunset at the north pole" and told everyone it was a photograph."