Cliff Notes
- Blue Ghost spacecraft, operated by Firefly Aerospace, captured images of a solar eclipse from the lunar surface for the first time in history.
- The images show Earth blocking sunlight and creating a “diamond ring” effect, as well as the lander’s solar panel reflecting the event.
- Firefly Aerospace claims to have achieved a “fully successful” soft landing on the moon, marking significant progress in private lunar exploration.
Eclipse captured from moon’s point of view as lander takes images during ‘historic’ event
This week’s eclipse has been photographed from the moon’s point of view. But rather than being the lunar eclipse that was seen from Earth, on the moon it was a solar eclipse. The images were taken by a camera on board the unmanned Blue Ghost spacecraft which successfully landed on the planet earlier this month.
Operator Firefly Aerospace said it was the first time in history that a commercial company had operated actively on the moon during an eclipse.In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth lines up between the moon and the sun, hiding the moon from sunlight.
On Friday, the moon turned red in an event known as a blood moon. The full lunar eclipse was visible from North and South America, while in the UK only a partial lunar eclipse was visible.
The first picture of the cosmic event from the moon shows the Earth beginning to block out the sun.
The solar eclipse can also be seen in a reflection of the lander’s solar panel in the same picture.
In a caption on X accompanying the 14 March photo, Firefly Aerospace wrote: “BlueGhost caught her first look at the solar eclipse from the moon around 12.30am CDT – notice the glowing ring of light emerge in the reflection of our solar panel as the Earth began to block the sun!”
A second image, captured from the landing site, shows the “diamond ring” as the sun is about to emerge from totality behind Earth.
Firefly Aerospace said: “The red hue is the result of sunlight refracting through the Earth’s atmosphere as the sun is blocked by our planet, casting a shadow on the lunar surface. The glowing ring of the eclipse is again seen on Blue Ghost’s solar panel.”Blue Ghost’s three solar panels have been powering the lander’s research instruments for a 14-day mission on the moon.
The four-legged Blue Ghost, which is the size of a compact car, touched down on 2 March near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon’s Earth-facing side.It is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown. It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet.
Firefly Aerospace became the second private firm to carry out a moon landing, though it declared itself the first company to make a “fully successful” soft landing. Houston-based Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus lander made a lopsided touchdown last year, landing mostly intact but dooming many of its onboard instruments.
Only five nations have been successful in soft-landings in the past: The then-Soviet Union, the US, China, India and Japan.