New Delhi: NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has captured a unique, yet stunning view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth.


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"For the second time in the life of DSCOVR, the moon moved between the spacecraft and Earth,” said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The project recorded this event on July 5 with the same cadence and spatial resolution as the first ‘lunar photobomb’ of last year."


As per NASA, EPIC - a four-megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth - captured thes images between July 4 at 11:50 p.m. EDT and July 5 at 3:18 a.m. EDT (0350 UTC and 0718 UTC on July 5), showing the moon moving over the Indian and Pacific oceans. The North Pole is at the top of the images.



From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).


EPIC maintains a constant view of the fully illuminated Earth as it rotates, providing scientific observations of ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere.


 


The last time EPIC captured this event was between 3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 16, 2015.


Launched one year ago, on February 11, 2015, DSCOVR – NOAA Earth observation and space weather satellite – hovers between the sun and Earth at all times, maintaining a constant view of the sun and sun-lit side of Earth.