JAKARTA, SENAYANPOST.com – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared an unusual photo of Earth’s appearance from space.
In this photo shared Wednesday (21/7) on NASA’s official website, Earth appears to have a black spot over the North Pole.
The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration explained that the black spot hovering over the North Pole was the Moon’s shadow during the annular solar eclipse last June. The eclipse is what makes the Moon look like a smudge on the Earth’s surface.
The photo was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on June 10, 2021, using cameras and telescopes aboard NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite (DSCOVR) nearly 1 million miles from Earth.
The DSCOVR satellite orbiting at point L1 Lagrange is considered unstable on a scale of about 23 days, as satellites orbiting this position will undergo regular direction and attitude corrections.
However, the satellite can provide an uninterrupted view of the sun. This can provide high quality, more natural color images of the Earth, which are useful for monitoring factors such as planetary vegetation, cloud height, and ozone.
“Capturing a photo of a sunlit half-Earth from four times farther than the Moon’s orbit, it never ceases to provide surprises, such as occasionally the Moon enters our field of view, or the Moon casts a shadow on Earth,” said Dr. Adam Szabo, NASA Project Scientist of DSCOVR in a statement.
The Ring Solar Eclipse phenomenon itself occurred on June 10, when the Moon passed right between the Earth and the Sun, so that it would completely cover the Sun’s light. During an annular solar eclipse, the moon does not completely cover the sun as it passes, leaving the sun in the form of a ring of light which is often called a “ring of fire”.
Overall, the annular solar eclipse will last about 100 minutes. Begins at sunrise in Ontario, Canada. Then the path of the eclipse rotates across the northern part of the Earth.
Halfway through, the biggest eclipse occurred at noon local in northern Greenland. After that, the path of the annular eclipse swings at the North Pole. And ends at sunset in northeastern Siberia.
Indonesia also cannot see a partial solar eclipse, because it will only be visible in the North Atlantic Ocean and most of Europe. In addition, the phenomenon of partial eclipses can also be seen in the western and northern parts of Asia.
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