Thursday brought with it a total lunar eclipse for parts of the world that could see the Moon. If you missed it (like I did) then no problem since Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission has got your back. The lunar lander took a break from its science duties on our nearest astronomical neighbour to capture this stunning image of the eclipse. Observers on Earth saw the shadow of the Earth fall across the Moon but for Blue Ghost, it experienced a solar eclipse where the Sun hid behind the Earth!
A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun and the Moon, casting its shadow onto the lunar surface. This event can only happen during a full moon, when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are perfectly aligned, known as a syzygy. During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon often takes on a reddish-orange or sometimes brown hue as Earth’s atmosphere scatters and refracts sunlight around its edges. This allows only the longer wavelengths of light to reach the Moon’s surface. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere on Earth where the Moon is above the horizon, and they’re safe to observe without special equipment.
Lunar eclipse montage from UK in 2018 (Credit : Mark Thompson)
One such event occurred Thursday night/Friday morning depending on location. It was seen from western African, western Europe, the Americas, eastern Australia, New Zealand, northern Japan and eastern Russia. Many people saw the eclipse and there are some fabulous images all over social media. One particular image has caught the attention of us here at UniverseToday but it wasn’t taken by a human being!
The Firefly Blue Ghost lunar lander was launched to the Moon in September 2024 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It was developed by Firefly Aerospace as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Named after the rare Phausis reticulata firefly species known for its distinctive blue glow and it was this, rather unexpected ‘observer’ that snapped images of the lunar eclipse….from the Moon.
Artist impression of Blue Ghost (Credit : NASA)
The relative newcomer to the lunar landscape had an unusual vantage point of a relatively common astronomical event but from where it was positioned, the lunar eclipse appeared as a solar eclipse. The only difference was that this solar eclipse had the Earth blocking light from the Sun instead of the Moon.
The image captured by Blue Ghost appears as the classic diamond ring effect which is one of the most spectacular moments of a total solar eclipse. It occurs just before and just after the moment of totality. It resembles a diamond ring as a small portion of the Sun’s bright photosphere is still just visible as the rest of the disk is covered while the Sun’s corona forms a glowing ring around the silhouette of the Earth (usually Moon.)
In another image also released by the same team parts of the solar panel can be seen with what is believed to be part of the spacecraft reflecting in the panel and the diamond ring effect glinting in the black sky.