Blue Ghost lander captured a solar eclipse while on the moon. See the stunning imagery here
Shortly after totality, Blue Ghost lunar lander captured a solar eclipse displaying a “diamond ring” effect, when light from the sun started to shine through after being blocked by the Earth. (Photo Credit: Firefly Aerospace via CNN Newsource)
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(CNN) — While parts of the Earth experienced a total lunar eclipse early Friday, a spacecraft on the moon captured the spectacle from a different perspective — a solar eclipse that appeared as a fiery ring in space.
The Blue Ghost lunar lander, which has been on the moon since the spacecraft’s successful touchdown on March 2, captured images of the sun, Earth and moon lined up at around 4:30 a.m. ET, the private Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace announced Friday.
The lander captured what is known as the “diamond ring” effect, which is when light from the sun peeks through right before totality — in this case when the Earth fully blocked the sun — and after.
Firefly Aerospace also shared footage made up of several images stitched together that the lander had rapidly captured during the solar eclipse. These images show the spacecraft taking on a deep red hue as the sunlight is refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a shadow cast on the lunar surface.
“Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander had the rare opportunity to operate on the Moon and capture the first (high-definition) imagery of a total solar eclipse on March 14,” Will Coogan, Blue Ghost’s chief engineer, said in a email. “This is the first time in history a commercial company has ever been operational during an eclipse on the Moon, and we’re incredibly proud of the imagery we’ve downlinked so far.”
The images came in after the lander’s X-band antenna — the device used to beam data and images back from the vehicle — warmed up after facing cold temperatures during the darkness caused by totality, Firefly Aerospace posted on X.
“Operating for nearly 5 hours of darkness during a total eclipse is as challenging as operating during the lunar night — temperatures on the Moon can quickly drop below -100°C (minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit) and there’s no sunlight to provide power, so the lander was solely running on battery power,” Coogan said in an email. “But this team continues to raise the bar and make achievements that are incredibly difficult look easy.”
A spacecraft has captured an eclipse while on the moon’s surface only one other time. In 1967, NASA’s Surveyor 3 lander, which had been sent to gather data in preparation for the Apollo missions, captured a series of images that documented the first view of an eclipse from another celestial body.
The Blue Ghost lander has been documenting its journey through space since it left Earth on January 15, sharing breathtaking imagery of the moon and Earth. Next up, Firefly looks to capture the lunar sunset on Sunday.
During lunar sunsets, a mysterious phenomenon occurs when the moon’s horizon glows, which is believed to be caused by sunlight scattering through floating electrostatic particles, according to NASA.
Firefly CEO Jason Kim has told CNN that he is looking forward to verifying this event.
“There’s a phenomenon called the lunar horizon glow that only the Apollo 15 and 17 astronauts have seen with their eyes,” Kim said. “We’re going to be able to capture that in 4K-by-4K high-definition video and share that with the rest of the world.”
Besides sharing the imagery, Blue Ghost has 10 NASA science and technology instruments aboard as part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative.
CLPS is part of NASA’s broader Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The instruments are currently working to collect data primarily on the moon’s subsurface, such as lunar dust and regolith, the loose rocks and mineral fragments that cover the lunar surface.
Shortly after the sunset, the lander will continue to operate for several hours during the lunar nighttime before the period of darkness and cold temperatures are expected to cause the spacecraft to cease operations.
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