On Sept. 13th, the sun was eclipsed--twice! No one on Earth has ever seen anything like it. Indeed, it was only visible from Earth orbit. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the event:
The double eclipse began around 06:30 UT when Earth passed directly between the sun and SDO. The observatory watched as the body of our planet moved slowly across the face of the sun, producing a near black-out. When the Earth finally moved aside about an hour later, another eclipse was in progress. This time, the Moon was in the way. A movie from the SDO science team explains the crazy-perfect alignment required for such a view.
(In the snaphots above, note how the edge of the Earth looks so much fuzzier than the edge of the Moon. That's because our planet has an atmosphere and the Moon does not.)
Meanwhile on Earth, an ordinary partial eclipse was visible. People in South Africa and parts of Antarctica saw the Moon pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing crescent-shaped shadows and strange sunrises. Check the realtime photo gallery for their images. www.spaceweather.com
(In the snaphots above, note how the edge of the Earth looks so much fuzzier than the edge of the Moon. That's because our planet has an atmosphere and the Moon does not.)
Meanwhile on Earth, an ordinary partial eclipse was visible. People in South Africa and parts of Antarctica saw the Moon pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing crescent-shaped shadows and strange sunrises. Check the realtime photo gallery for their images. www.spaceweather.com
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