Epic image captures moon's shadow falling on US during the 'ring of fire' solar eclipse

NASA has released another fascinating image from last week's 'ring of fire' solar eclipse.

The image which was captured by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured the moment the moon aligned with the sun casting a shadow on Earth.

A lunar shadow

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As the moon was passing in front of the sun during the annular solar eclipse on October 14, it cast a shadow or an umbra on our planet.

DSCOVR, a joint satellite of NASA, NOAA and US Air Force, managed to capture this "out of the world" display from a unique vantage point of about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth.

Sharing the "EPIC view" on social media platform X, NASA wrote, "An EPIC view of the annular eclipse."

"About 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, the shadow, or umbra, from the Moon was seen falling across the southeastern coast of Texas. @nasa's EPIC instrument on the DSCOVR satellite captured this image on Oct. 14."

DSCOVR, as per the NASA website, is "a space weather station that monitors changes in the solar wind, providing space weather alerts and forecasts for geomagnetic storms that could disrupt power grids, satellites, telecommunications, aviation and GPS."

The solar eclipse

Along a narrow pathway from the Oregon coast to Central and South America, skygazers witnessed an annular solar eclipse, where the moon blocked all of the sun except for a thin band, a luminous "ring of fire".

To the rest of us, a partial eclipse was visible, one that looked like the moon taking a nibble out of the sun.

A picture of this phenomenon clicked from space was also shared by NASA. That picture from an extraordinary viewpoint in space was clicked by one of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The stunning photo depicts the annular eclipse as viewed from the ISS, approximately 260 miles above Earth. You can check it out here.

How annual solar eclipses happen

Annular solar eclipses happen due to the moon's slightly elliptical orbit, and occur when the moon, sun, and Earth align perfectly, but the moon is positioned farthest from Earth, which then results in the solar disk being blocked, albeit incompletely.

(With inputs from agencies)

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