Astronauts' strange view of a solar eclipse appears in a crazy video

Lifestyle

by Emily Speck, Fox Weather

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were treated to a strange sight during Monday's total solar eclipse, as the moon's shadow raced across the planet's surface.

It took more than an hour to wait for the total eclipse on Earth after the partial eclipse began, but the low-Earth orbit view provided context for how quickly the moon's shadow was moving. According to NASA, the eclipse's shadow moves at 1,100 mph at the equator and reaches 5,000 mph near the poles.

Astronauts who live and work on the International Space Station orbit Earth approximately every 90 minutes, witnessing 16 sunrises and sunsets in 24 hours and up to five eclipses per year.

On Monday, astronauts were able to see not only the eclipse as the Moon obscured the face of the Sun, but the Moon's shadow on Earth as it blocked sunlight in the path of totality – appearing like a black hole floating to the Earth below.

The International Space Station wasn't the only view of the solar eclipse from space. SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared the video below, which was captured by a Starlink satellite in low Earth orbit.

The video shows the moon's shadow, or shadow, as it moves across the planet.

As the Moon moved in front of the Sun, Earth- and Sun-observing spacecraft recorded the eclipse in real time.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite tracked the moon's moving shadow across the Pacific Ocean and North America while the European Space Agency's Proba-2 satellite recorded the eclipse toward the sun.