by New images reveal the recent lunar eclipse as seen from the International Space Station.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went to Twitter on Monday to share three amazing new photos of space.
The images depict the recent lunar eclipse – also known as the “Damn Moon” – that occurred on May 15 from three different advantages.
In one of the photos, the bright blue atmosphere of the Earth was visible in the background.
The three images also clearly show the wings of the International Space Station (ISS) – which are made up of solar panels.
“A partially shaded moon playing hide-and-seek with our solar panel,” Cristoforetti wrote on Twitter in both English and Italian.
Since they came out live, the images have garnered thousands of likes and hundreds of comments and retweets.
“I saw the station last night while watching the eclipse! I was shaking you all and wondering how wonderful the view from up there was. Thank you for sharing these photos! ” commented a Twitter user.
“Amazing photos, thanks for sharing,” a second user echoed.
“These are some of the most beautiful photos of the moon I have ever seen. “It looks like they came straight out of a movie,” said a third person.
What is a lunar eclipse?
The Earth is constantly revolving around the Sun and the Moon is constantly revolving around the Earth.
Sometimes all three can be aligned by placing the Earth directly between the Sun and the Moon in a straight line.
It means that the Moon is in the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – the “umbra”.
And because of the convenient size and distance of all three objects, no sunlight can reach the Moon directly.
However, some of the sunlight is refracted from the Earth’s atmosphere, making the Moon appear reddish – hence the name “Blood Moon”.
Lunar eclipses usually last only a few hours and can be viewed from anywhere on the Earth’s night side.
Because they are usually quite dim, it is also possible to project lunar eclipses without eye protection, which is not the case with a solar eclipse.
How many types of lunar eclipses are there?
There are three different types of lunar eclipses.
A “total lunar eclipse” is when the Moon turns deep red, receiving only light that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Pre-lunar eclipses” occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth fail to form a perfectly straight line, so the Moon travels only through the outer part of the Earth’s shadow.
Finally, a “partial lunar eclipse” describes when part of the Moon travels through the full shadow of the Earth – something that causes a part of the Moon to darken.
This story first appeared on The sun and has been reproduced here with permission.
