03/13/2007
NASA Releases Spectacular Lunar Transit Images
NASA just released this beautiful shot taken by the STEREO-B spacecraft depicting a lunar transit of the sun. That's the silhouette of the moon you see with the sun behind it, photographed in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light.
NASA explains the size differentiation between the two orbs, which is negligible when viewing an eclipse from Earth:
"The Moon seems small because of STEREO-B's location. The spacecraft circles the sun in an Earth-like orbit, but it lags behind Earth by one million miles. This means STEREO-B is 4.4 times further from the Moon than we are, and so the Moon looks 4.4 times smaller."
Here's a short film of the transit. Enjoy.
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Posted 4:00 PM EST by Andy in News, Photography, Space | Permalink
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Beautiful!!!!
Travis
Posted by: Travis | Mar 13, 2007 4:21:04 PM
Gorgeous! I'm so happy to be alive to see such beautiful things like this.
Posted by: Timothy | Mar 13, 2007 4:31:58 PM
Pink, pink, pink, pink moon/sun?!
Posted by: jason | Mar 13, 2007 7:48:54 PM
That is totally awesome!!! But how come no sound?
Posted by: Atomische | Mar 13, 2007 9:59:51 PM
WOW!
Posted by: gabriel | Mar 14, 2007 4:05:47 PM