{"id":290713,"date":"2026-02-18T23:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290713\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T23:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:55:09","slug":"see-the-moons-shadow-darken-antarctica-in-epic-satellite-imagery-of-the-feb-17-solar-eclipse-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290713\/","title":{"rendered":"See the moon’s shadow darken Antarctica in epic satellite imagery of the Feb. 17 solar eclipse (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Satellites have captured incredible views of the Feb. 17 annular solar eclipse as the moon’s shadow swept across a remote region of Antarctica, while at the same time a U.S. weather satellite captured the silhouette of Earth’s satellite as it traversed across the face of the sun.<\/p>\n

An annular solar eclipse<\/a> takes place when the moon<\/a> \u2014 at a distant point in its elliptical orbit \u2014 passes between the sun and Earth<\/a>, blocking the vast majority of its surface while leaving a thin sliver of its outer disk visible to appear as a burning halo in the sky.<\/p>\n

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Sadly, the only humans on hand to see the full glory of the Feb. 17 “ring of fire” eclipse were those who were crewing isolated research stations in a 383-mile-wide (616 kilometer) swathe of Antarctica.<\/p>\n

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Thankfully for us in warmer locations, a number of satellites<\/a> were able to witness the enormity of the event from orbit, including spacecraft from the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), which captured imagery of the moon’s shadow (above) as it swept over the frozen continent.<\/p>\n

The moon’s immense shadow was also spied by South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2A<\/a> weather satellite from its perch 22,370 miles (36,000 km) above Earth in geostationary orbit, close to the shadowy line of the night-day terminator.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The moon’s shadow passes over Antarctica during the Feb. 17 annular solar eclipse. (Image credit: CIRA\/NOAA)<\/p>\n

NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite captured a different perspective as it stared directly into the sun using its Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument from high above Earth. Bright looping structures can be seen playing throughout the sun’s atmosphere<\/a> in the ultraviolet realm of the electromagnetic spectrum as plasma is shaped by our star’s strong magnetic field<\/a> while the moon’s silhouette roams left-to-right across the solar disk.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The moon transits across the face of the sun during the Feb. 17 solar eclipse. (Image credit: NOAA)<\/p>\n

Solar eclipses<\/a> don’t occur in isolation, but rather as the opening \u2014 or sometimes closing \u2014 act of a two-part eclipse “season”<\/a>. The second half of this current orbital ballet will occur on March 3, when our planet slips between the sun<\/a> and moon, bathing the latter with sunlight that has been filtered and scattered by Earth’s atmosphere to give rise to a dramatic “blood moon” total lunar eclipse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

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Today’s best solar eclipse viewing glasses deals<\/p>\n

Totality will be visible to approximately 2.5 billion people spread throughout Australia, New Zealand, East Asia, parts of the Pacific and North America, the latter of which will get to see the moon slip into the deepest part of Earth’s shadow as it slips below the horizon at sunrise.<\/p>\n

Then, on Aug. 12, stargazers in Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and Russia will be treated to a dramatic total solar eclipse<\/a> \u2014 where the moon briefly hides the entirety of the solar surface in the path of totality \u2014 while hundreds of millions elsewhere will witness a lesser partial eclipse.<\/p>\n

Hoping to see the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse for yourself? Then be sure to read our top tips and travel advice for planning an eclipse trip<\/a> along with our picks of the best solar viewing gear<\/a> and guidance on how to check and safely use eclipse glasses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your eclipse photography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Satellites have captured incredible views of the Feb. 17 annular solar eclipse as the moon’s shadow swept across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-290713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}