How the moon saw itself when it shadowed the sun during total solar eclipse – NASA's LRO gives a glimpse!

Image courtesy: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

New Delhi: The world still hasn't gotten over the spellbinding magic of nature that graced the American skies on August 21 after almost a century – the total solar eclipse.

While stunning images and videos of the once-in-a-lifetime celestial spectacle flooded social spaces, including those from the point of view of the International Space Station astronauts, the latest image is incredible, because it was captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), that is, from the POV of the moon.

During the eclipse, the LRO captured an image of the moon’s shadow over a large region of the United States, centered just north of Nashville, Tennessee.

As LRO crossed the lunar south pole heading north at 3,579 mph (1,600 meters per second), the shadow of the Moon was racing across the United States at 1,500 mph (670 meters per second).

Performing a slow 180-degree maneuver towards Earth, the LRO clicked an image of the eclipse very near the location where totality lasted the longest.

As per NASA, the spacecraft’s Narrow Angle Camera began scanning Earth at 2:25:30 pm EDT (18:25:30 UTC) and completed the image 18 seconds later.

While the thrill of the total eclipse was in experiencing the shadow of the Moon sweep across us on Earth, on the Moon this was just another day.

The lunar nearside was one week into its two-week night, while the Sun shone on the far side in the middle of its two-week day. Because solar eclipses do not affect the health or power supply of the spacecraft, LRO operated normally during the total solar eclipse, NASA said.