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Last week's total solar eclipse produced an incredible number of incredible images as it swept through a handful of countries. But while observers from parts of South America were looking up at the sky, a NASA satellite was observing the phenomenon from space. The US Space Agency's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured one of the most spectacular photos of the solar eclipse as it ran in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.
The NASA Aqua satellite MODIS sensor released this photo of the moon shadow as it headed east of the South Pacific on Monday.
The shadow projected by an eclipse consists of completely darkened shadow and partially shaded darkness.
Aqua has a polar orbit and the MODIS sensor collects banded images approximately 1,350 miles (2,350 miles) wide.
This incredible image is a mosaic of data collected at three different times.
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The left third of the image was collected at 21:40, universal time, once the shadow has passed.
The median band was taken at 20h UT, while the eclipse was underway over the South Pacific.
While the right third shows Chile between 6.13 and 6.32 UT, before the shadow of the solar eclipse passes.
The black areas in the image represent areas near the equator – the widest point on Earth – where MODIS swaths do not meet.
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Eclipses are caused by the Moon moving around the Earth in a slightly elliptical orbit.
The Moon is therefore rarely at the exact same distance from the Earth.
When the moon is closest, the celestial orb appears slightly larger than when it is far away.
During a total solar eclipse, the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun, which offsets the difference in size 400 times.
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Seeing a total solar eclipse from a particular place is rare.
NASA has calculated that on average, the same place on Earth sees a solar eclipse for about a few minutes every 375 years, although a total eclipse occurs about every half years, somewhere on Earth .
The next total solar eclipse will take place on December 14, 2020 in the South Pacific, Chile, Argentina and the South Atlantic.
And the next total solar eclipse to arrive in the United States will be April 8, 2024.
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