The Sun and Moon decided to put on a show Thursday — but only for the lucky few with good seats, in space.
In what is known as a lunar transit, the Moon passed between NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Sun, giving the observatory a view of a partial solar eclipse only visible from space
Lunar transits like this happen two or three times a year, but Thursday's was particularly special. According to SDO's mission blog, the entire eclipse lasted two and half hours — the longest lunar transit thus far in the SDO mission
SDO is the first mission to be launched as a part of NASA's Living With a Star Program, a program designed to research the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth and help scientists understand the Sun's influence on Earth. The observatory was launched on Feb. 11, 2010 from Cape Canaveral. Read more...
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