Elijah Williams
As millions of people looked up to the sky on Monday Total solar eclipse on Monday, a handful of Earthlings got a very different view of the rare phenomenon — from the International Space Station.
As the station orbited above southeastern Canada, flight engineers Matthews Dominick and Jeanette Epps were able to photograph and film the moon’s shadow on Earth about 260 miles below them. NASA said on Monday.
The Expedition 71 crew had the opportunity to see the moon’s shadow on Earth, or umbra, after spending the day completing cargo transfers, spacesuit maintenance and microgravity research, NASA said. The windows of the outpost’s dome – known as the “window to the world” – were open, allowing the astronauts to capture the interesting images.
The International Space Station experienced about 90% of totality during its flyby, and NASA posted a video of the event on social media:
More than 31 million people live in path of totalitythe area where the moon completely blocked the sun, according to NASA. The path varied between 108 and 122 miles wide. Another 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.
Before flying into the Moon’s shadow during the eclipse, the space station crew performed a number of other tasks on Monday — including orbital plumbing, repairing a pair of scientific freezers and maintaining ventilation.
The stunning image of the moon’s shadow emerged just days later NASA released images that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter during a flyby in March.
The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, passed each other in opposite directions, and the LRO operations team “needed excellent timing to point LROC to the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of Danuri.” .
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Moon for 15 years, captured several images — reminiscent of a cosmic surfboard hurtling through space — during three orbits while it was close enough to Danuri to take photos.
NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
