NASA Artemis II splashdown has successfully brought the crew home after a historic deep space mission that included a rare solar eclipse seen beyond the Moon.
During the mission, the astronauts witnessed one of the world’s rarest astronomical phenomena, a solar eclipse, which occurred when the Moon completely covered the Sun for about 53 minutes.
Shortly after the event occurred, NASA released a time-lapse of the event that showed the Sun’s corona glowing around the lunar disk.
NASA Artemis II captures solar eclipse
During a solar eclipse the Moon blocks the Sun, leaving only a bright solar corona that appears as a glowing halo. NASA’s time-lapse video, which summarized the entirety of the nearly one-hour event into one brief clip, showed the unique astronomical phenomenon.
Scientists are currently investigating whether the glow involves both the zodiacal light and the corona or just one of these elements.
_updates.jpg)
The long duration of the solar eclipse observed during Artemis II distinguishes it from previous eclipse events captured on Earth. Totality exists on Earth for at most several minutes after its occurrence.
The spacecraft maintained its deep space trajectory, providing scientists an extended time period to study celestial objects. Scientists achieved better visibility of background stars as well as dim coronal elements.
NASA Artemis II Views of the solar eclipse became more intense as observers viewed the event from locations beyond Earth. As the brightness of the Sun’s light decreased, the stars and planets became visible to observers. Astronauts observed the Earth’s glow, which occurs when sunlight from Earth creates a faint glow on the moon.
Orion solar array wing cameras recorded footage that captured the eclipse as the spacecraft passed through the moon’s shadow. This phase caused an Earth communications blackout that continued until contact with Earth was reestablished.
Commander Reed Wiseman, along with pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, watch the Artemis II solar eclipse. The crew experienced an extended totality as they traveled through space, which differed from the astronauts of the Apollo program who experienced only small eclipses.
