Watch the Moon's Shadow Flit Over the Earth's Surface

D-brief
By Lisa Raffensperger
Nov 6, 2013 12:56 AMNov 19, 2019 8:56 PM

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Did you missthe solar eclipse over the weekend? Fear not! New images of the shadow of the moon passing over the Earth's surface have been released, and they're even more impressive thanthose Earthbound glamour shots you've been seeing.

Credit: EUMETSAT The animation is created from images taken by Meteosat-10, a weather satellite run by the European consortium EUMETSAT. The satellite is in geostationary orbit over Africa, making it perfectly placed to see this eclipse'sumbra---the darkest and most central portion of the moon's shadow. The images were taken once every 15 minutes from 5:45 to 9:30am Eastern time on November 3, as the shadow passed over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. For a more zoomed-out perspective from the same satellite, check out this visualization, which also usesimages from Meteosat-10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvctRZz2yjQ So if you really want a stunning look at the next total solar eclipse, in March 2015, maybe you should look into booking your private spaceflight now...

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