NASA shared a rare image of the moon casting a shadow over the Arctic

On June 10, NASA captured a photo of the moon’s shadow over the Arctic during the solar eclipse. On July 21, the organization released a rare photograph taken by its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), which is a camera and telescope that sits aboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite (DSCOVR).

“Taking images of the sunlit half of Earth from a distance four times further than the Moon’s orbit never ceases to provide surprises, like occasionally the moon getting in our field of view, or the moon casting shadow on Earth,” said Dr. Adam Szabo, the NASA Project Scientist of DSCOVR.

People in parts of Canada, Greenland and Russia were able to see the full annular eclipse on June 10, which was also partially visible from parts of the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, the eastern United States, Alaska and northern Africa.

Check out this video posted to YouTube by NASA, which explains the rare phenomenon.

“During an annular solar eclipse, like the one on June 10, the Moon is near its farther point from Earth and appears smaller than the Sun in the sky,” the video’s description explains. “As the two align, the Sun appears as a ring of fire surrounding the dark disk of the Moon.”

The video explains that EPIC snaps more than a dozen photos daily. This helps scientists monitor the planet’s vegetation, cloud height, ozone and wildfire smoke.

A number of people also took to social media to share images of the event.

Politician Jon Cooper at @joncoopertweets tweeted out this stunning image of the Statue of Liberty during the eclipse:

Photographer Barry Butler at @barrybutler9 tweeted out a gorgeous image of the eclipse over Chicago as seen over Lake Michigan:

Twitter user Gino Donato at @GDonatoPhoto shared some incredible images of the event as seen in Canada as well, noting that the next one will take place on Oct. 14, 2023:

How cool!