A solar eclipse… from OUTER SPACE! NASA’s probe photographs the Moon passing in front of the Sun in stunning images that capture the “lunar mountains backlit by solar fire.”
- NASA’s spacecraft has caused the moon to pass in front of the sun in a stunning series of images from space
- The eclipse was not visible from Earth and lasted only 35 minutes, but was captured by a camera from space
- Close-up images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory show lunar mountains backlit by swirling sunflames
- The Leibnitz and Dörfel chains near the moon’s south pole have been identified by NASA experts
A NASA satellite captured stunning images of a partial solar eclipse from its unique vantage point in space — the only place it was visible.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) photographed the Moon passing in front of the Sun at around 05:20 BST (01:20 ET) yesterday.
The transit lasted about 35 minutes and at its peak the Moon covered 67 percent of the fiery surface.
The spacecraft then sent back a series of images of the event, which experts at SpaceWeather.com said showed “lunar mountains backlit by solar fire.”
Bumps and bumps identified as part of the Leibnitz and Dörfelgebirge mountains can be seen on the lunar surface as it passed.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of a 35-minute partial solar eclipse from its unique vantage point in space — the only place where it was visible
The Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the Moon passing in front of the Sun from 05:20 BST (01:20 ET) yesterday.
The spacecraft returned a series of images from the event, which experts at SpaceWeather.com said showed “lunar mountains backlit by solar fire.”
WHAT IS A SOLAR ECLIPSE?
Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, casting a shadow on earth.
There are different types, depending on how much of the sun appears obscured to a viewer at a given location.
Solar eclipses only occur about once every six months – a result of the moon not orbiting the earth in quite the same plane as the planet orbits the sun.
Patricio Leon of Santiago, Chile, compared the close-up images of the moon moving across the sun to a topographic map from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
During the eclipse, he was able to identify the Leibnitz and Dörfel mountain ranges near the moon’s south pole.
Experts from SpaceWeather.com said: “At the peak of the eclipse, the moon covered 67 percent of the sun and the lunar mountains were backlit by solar fire.
“High-resolution images like these can help the SDO science team better understand the telescope.
“They show how light bends around SDO’s optics and filter support grids.
“Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen images of the Sun even more than before.”
Launched in 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory monitors the Sun with a fleet of spacecraft taking pictures of it every 0.75 seconds.
It also studies the Sun’s magnetic field, atmosphere, sunspots, and other aspects that affect activity during the 11-year solar cycle.
The Sun has been experiencing increased activity for several months as it appears to be moving into a particularly active phase of its 11-year activity cycle that began in 2019 and is expected to peak in 2025.
The Sun’s magnetic poles flip at the peak of the solar activity cycle, and a charged-particle solar wind carries the magnetic field away from the Sun’s surface and through the Solar System.
This is accompanied by an increase in solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the solar surface.
A CME is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the Sun’s corona – the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere – into the solar wind.
CMEs only affect the Earth when pointed in the direction of our planet, and are usually much slower than solar flares because they move a larger amount of matter.
Patricio Leon of Santiago, Chile, compared the close-up images of the moon moving across the sun to a topography map from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. He was able to identify the Leibnitz and Dörfel mountain ranges near the moon’s south pole during the solar eclipse
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), pictured here, studies how solar activity arises and how space weather results from that activity
Aflare energy can disrupt the region of the atmosphere through which radio waves propagate, causing temporary blackouts in navigation and communications signals.
On the other hand, CMEs have the power to disrupt the Earth’s magnetic fields and create currents that drive particles down towards the Earth’s poles.
When these react with oxygen and nitrogen, they help create the aurora, also known as the Northern and Southern Lights.
In addition, the magnetic changes can affect a variety of human technologies, causing GPS coordinates to differ by a few meters and overloading power grids if utility companies are not prepared.
In the modern world there has not been an extreme CME or solar flare – the most recent being the Carrington event in 1859 – that produced a geomagnetic storm with a worldwide appearing aurora and fires in telegraph stations.
WHAT IS NASA’S SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY SATELLITE?
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission that has been observing the Sun since 2010.
Its Ultra HD cameras convert different wavelengths of light into an image that humans can see, and the light is then tinted into a rainbow of colors.
The satellite was launched on February 11, 2010 from Cape Canaveral.
The SDO contains a suite of instruments that provide observations leading to a fuller understanding of the solar dynamics that drive variability in the Earth’s environment.
One of the many incredible images provided by the SDO
Tasks this set of instruments can perform include measuring ultraviolet light, abnormalities in the Sun’s magnetic field, taking pictures of the chromosphere and inner corona, and detecting solar fluctuations that can occur at different periods of a solar cycle.
Three separate devices are used for this: the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager; Arrangement for atmospheric imaging; and Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment.
Science teams receive this data, which they process, analyze, archive and make available to the public.