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Where is it?North America
What ’s in the video?The moonlight ’s shadow , or umbra , passing over the continent
The moon’s shadow traveled across North America at more than 1,500 mph during the total solar eclipse. (This video has been significantly sped-up. In real time, this lasted around 4 hours.)
Which planet took the video?GOES-16
When was it taken?April 8 , 2024
This striking satellite footage shows themoon ’s shadow racing across North Americaat more than 1,500 mph ( 2,400 klick / h ) during 2024 ’s historic totalsolar eclipse , when several singular phenomena were honor as sidereal day briefly turned to nighttime .
ISS astronauts photographed the shadow as it passed from New York state into Newfoundland, Canada.
On April 8 last twelvemonth , tens of million of people in the U.S. , Canada and Mexico looked up to the skies to see the lunation temporarily block out our home maven . During the event , totality — the period of time in which the sun is completely obscured — lasted up to4 hour and 28 seconds , bet on the viewer ’s location . This was the first total solar eclipsevisible from the continent since 2017 , but thelongest totality there for 54 years .
From space , the obscure part of the synodic month ’s shadow , or umbra , slowly swept across the continentfrom western Mexico to easterly Canadaover about 4 hours , allow orbiter and astronauts to snap some stunning shots of the event .
NOAA ’s 16th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite ( GOES-16 ) was one of these orbital observer . This ballistic capsule is geostationary , meaning that it orbits Earth at the same swiftness as the planet spin , allowing it to watch one part of Earth from a fixed position . From its advantage point around 22,300 mile ( 36,000 kilometre ) above North America , the satellite captured thousands of photograph that were later digitally sew together together into the time - lapse video above .
NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) also saw the moons shadow race across North America from around 1 million miles away.
Related : See all the best images of Earth from space
Photos from other spacecraft also provided alternative perspectives of the sweeping shadow .
NASA ’s Deep Space Climate Observatory ( DSCOVR ) capture TV of the shadow moving across the globe from its position , some 1 million international mile ( 1.6 million kilometers ) from Earth . And astronauts onboard theInternational Space Station(ISS ) also snappedup - close photos of the shadowfrom around 260 geographical mile ( 418 kilometre ) above our planet ’s surface .
A unique event
Several strange phenomena can occur during a total solar eclipse , and 2024 was no exception .
Many observers spot pinkish or red spots around the sun ’s obscured disk . Some peoplewrongly assumed that these were solar flaresexploding from the sunlight . expert later revealed that these were solar prominences — plasma plumes that tower above the sunlight but do not burst forth outwards .
On the same 24-hour interval as the eclipse , astronomer also discovered atiny sungrazer comet dive - bombing toward the Dominicus . The newly spotted target was then photographed during totality , before it was destroyed by our home star just a few hours after .
One of the most bizarre effects observe was asubtle geological fault in global sentence signalssent and invite by communication pith across North America as the sunshine ’s trace cool down the upper atmosphere , slightly altering how radio receiver sign bounced off this part of our satellite . However , the changes were too modest to impact any time - keeping devices .
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Several otherunusual things were go through during totality , includingdisappearing clouds , daytime - visible planets , variety to color perceptionand optic effect around the sunlight as seen from Earth , such as " Baily ’s beads " and " diamond rings . " Some uncivilised and absorbed animals also appeared to be blur as the sky turned dark .
The world ’s next full solar eclipsewill occur on Aug. 12 , 2026and will be most visible from part of Greenland , Iceland and Spain .
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