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This year’s last solar eclipse occurred last week. It was not visible from most parts of the world, including India. This eclipse was visible from Antarctica, while people in some other countries such as Australia and New Zealand were able to see a partial solar eclipse. But ever wondered how a total solar eclipse would appear when seen from space? NASA shared images captured from a space observatory on Instagram, which showed the Moon’s shadow as it passed over Antarctica.
NASA captioned the post, “Have you ever seen a total solar eclipse? How about seeing a total solar eclipse from space? The space agency stated that the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft captured the shadow as it passed over Antarctica.
“Shaped like a cone extending into space, the shadow has a circular cross-section most easily seen during a solar eclipse,” said the agency.
The second and third images in the post show how the eclipse would look “from another perspective” — inside the International Space Station (ISS). Astronaut Kayla Barron snapped images of the eclipse from the ISS. Visible in the foreground is a Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory.
NASA also explained in the post how a solar eclipse occurs: “A solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth, fully or partially blocking the Sun’s light in some areas. For a total solar eclipse to take place, the Sun, Moon, and Earth must line up exactly.”
Here are the images:
So far, the post has been liked by over 8.77 lakh people.
The Deep Space Climate Observatory is a joint project by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It was launched in 2009 and “monitors changes in the solar wind and provides space weather forecasts and alerts for solar storms that could temporarily disrupt power grids and GPS”. Orbiting about a million miles from the Earth, DSCOVR takes a new photo of Earth every two hours.