Satellite image captures moon's shadow over U.S. during solar eclipse
A new satellite image shows a seemingly vast portion of the United States shrouded in an expansive dark splotch. It is actually the moon, said NASA, casting a shadow over North America during an eclipse last weekend.
The stunning picture was taken using the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera, or "EPIC," which is on board the DSCOVR satellite. DSCOVR, an acronym for Deep Space Climate Observatory, was first launched into space in February 2015 through a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force. It monitors solar wind patterns in real time and provides information that is integral to the timeliness and accuracy of NOAA's alerts and forecasts for space weather events, like geomagnetic storms.
"EPIC" can also capture impressive images of Earth from its unique vantage point between our planet and the Sun, one that NASA calls "gravitationally stable." It is situated about 1.5 million kilometers — more than 930,000 miles — from Earth's surface.
The latest photograph released by the satellite camera shows a section of the planet on Saturday, Oct. 14, the date of the most recent annular solar eclipse. It shows the moon's shadow, or umbra, casting a dark shadow over the southeastern coast of Texas, near Corpus Christi.
NASA shared the image on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday morning.
"About 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, the shadow, or umbra, form the Moon was seen falling across the southeastern coast of Texas," the agency said. The image itself from the DSCOVR satellite's EPIC instrument was captured on Oct. 14.
An annular eclipse, as opposed to a total solar eclipse, happens when the moon passes in front of the Sun but is too far away to completely block its light, according to NASA. Traveling along an elliptical orbit around Earth, the moon is at its farthest distance from the Sun during an annular eclipse, and the proximity has been known to create a red-orange ring in the sky, sometimes called a "ring of fire."
NASA said the phenomenon on Saturday was at least partially visible across the entire United States and Mexico as well as other countries in Central America and South America. But people who were in the path of annularity — where, from an observer's perspective, the moon covered the largest chunk of the sun — may have had the clearest view of the eclipse. The path of annularity is the shadow in the new "EPIC" image. It moved from Oregon on Saturday morning to Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, before traveling over Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
"The next annular solar eclipse visible from the U.S. will be on June 21, 2039," NASA said, "but a total solar eclipse will darken skies from Texas to Maine on Monday, April 8, 2024."
