Last weekend was a double whammy for Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It captured a rare glimpse of an unusual double eclipse when the Earth and Moon lined up together and blocked out the sun.
The SDO was launched in February 2010. It is on an orbital path around the earth even as its telescopes and observation instruments are focused on the sun to understand how it affects both the earth and other planets.
The SDO gets blocked out from viewing the sun every day during its autumnal and spring eclipse. But it also happened to capture the moon passing in front of the Sun.
The video shows that the Earth moves between the SDO and the Sun first, even as the Earth's ambience distorts the solar sun rays. It makes the edge of the sun look "fuzzy". While the sun reappears from behind the Earth, the Moon transits before the sun. "The edges of the Moon look crisp and sharply defined in comparison with the Sun," because the Moon lacks atmosphere.
This amazing double eclipse could be seen only from space. However, those who watched from southern Africa could also see the annular or 'ring of fire' eclipse. Even though the sun was not totally blocked out by the Moon, as happens during a total solar eclipse, just a thin halo of its light could be seen behind the Moon.
When the Moon slips in between the Earth and Sun but happens to be far away in its orbit, it looks a bit smaller than the earth.
You can watch the next show of a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, if you are in the United States. A partial solar eclipse would be visible from Western European, South America, and East Asia when just a part of the sun would get covered by the Moon in most of these areas.
YouTube/The Cosmos News
