Thursday, February 26, 2009

An Eclipse of The Earth




Earth Eclipse



That Even Comes with A Diamond!

The Japanese spacecraft Kaguya has captured the Moon eclipsing planet Earth for the first time. We've had several stunning eclipses lately, and we expect another fabulous solar eclipse in China this July. But we see all those eclipses from planet Earth. Kaguya has seen 'an inverse' Moon eclipse - an eclipse of Earth seen from the Moon. And it comes with a diamond. :-)





Here is a schematic description of an Earth eclipse as seen from the Moon:








You go directly to the JAXA source by clicking on the images (as usual) and here is a couple of other perspectives on the event:

Nancy Atkinson's in Universe Today: Kaguya captures eclipse - from the Moon
Phil Plait's in Bad Astronomy: What does a lunar eclipse look like from the Moon