{"id":236061,"date":"2025-10-23T22:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:14:11","slug":"earth-photobombs-the-sun-in-satellite-image-photo-of-the-day-for-oct-23-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236061\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth photobombs the sun in satellite image photo of the day for Oct. 23, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) weather satellite GOES-19<\/a> turns its gaze toward the sun<\/a>, scientists don’t expect to see our home planet. But there it was recently \u2014 Earth, drifting briefly across the edge of the image captured by the satellite’s CCOR-1 coronagraph.<\/a><\/p>\n

The photo, shared by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center on X, <\/a>shows our planet silhouetted by the solar corona.<\/p>\n

What is it?<\/p>\n

The image was taken by GOES-19, the newest in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series operated by NOAA. Launched in 2024<\/a> and declared operational in early 2025, GOES-19 continuously monitors Earth’s weather and the turbulent space environment surrounding it.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Where is it?<\/p>\n

GOES-19 sits around 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth’s equator, in geostationary orbit. At this altitude, orbital speed matches Earth’s rotational speed, allowing satellites to “hover” over patches of the planet.<\/p>\n

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The image taken by GOES-19 shows the shadow of Earth as it “photobombs” the coronagraph. (Image credit: NOAA)Why is it amazing?<\/p>\n

Among the instruments GOES-19 uses is CCOR-1<\/a>, short for Compact Coronagraph 1, an experiment designed to capture real-time images of the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. Normally invisible to the human eye, the corona<\/a> glows faintly in visible light and extends millions of miles into space. It is from this region that coronal mass ejections <\/a>(CMEs), vast bursts of plasma and magnetic field, erupt into the solar system, sometimes striking Earth and disturbing satellites, power grids and communication networks.<\/p>\n

Though this image may look like a space selfie gone wrong, it shows that CCOR-1 is working as designed; it’s sensitive enough to capture faint solar structures even when an object as bright as Earth enters its view. Earth’s photobomb also provides a useful calibration test, helping scientists understand how CCOR-1 handles stray light, reflections and the brightness contrast between celestial objects.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more?<\/p>\n

You can learn more about coronagraphs<\/a> and weather satellites.<\/a><\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) weather satellite GOES-19 turns its gaze toward the sun,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-236061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}