New Delhi: Recently, millions of people across Asia and Pacific were treated to a celestial spectacle - a total solar eclipse. Yet, if you missed seeing the celestial spectacle because you stay out of these regions, here's a special treat for you - a stunning satellite animation of the solar eclipse - from NASA.


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During the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 9, 2016, while residents of islands and nations in the Western Pacific looked up to observe a total solar eclipse, NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) looked down from space and captured the shadow of the Moon marching across Earth’s sunlit face.


According to NASA, the animation was assembled from 13 images acquired by Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) and Cassegrain telescope on the DSCOVR satellite.



The animation shows the shadow of the moon passing over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia, then into open water and the islands of Oceania.


What is unique for us is that being near the Sun-Earth line, we follow the complete passage of the lunar shadow from one edge of the Earth to the other,” said Adam Szabo, NASA’s project scientist for DSCOVR. “A geosynchronous satellite would have to be lucky to have the middle of an eclipse at noon local time for it. I am not aware of anybody ever capturing the full eclipse in one set of images or video.”


This was the only total solar eclipse of 2016, the next is due on 21 August 2017 and will be visible from Europe.


DISCOVR, first launched in 2015, was built to provide a distinct perspective on our planet.