What causes darkness in the middle of a sunny day?
A total solar eclipse!
On April 8, 2024,
people across North America witnessed the Moon
pass in front of the Sun,
casting its shadow on Earth.
About a million miles from our home planet,
NASA's EPIC camera on the DSCOVR spacecraft
captured the passing shadow from space.
These images from EPIC
show the Moon’s shadow racing from Mexico,
through Texas, and over the Great Lakes,
at more than 2,000 miles per hour.
The shadow was roughly 115 miles wide,
and those lucky enough to be directly in the shadow
and have clear skies,
had a rare view of the Sun’s outer atmosphere
for up to four and a half minutes.
If you missed it,
your next chance to see a solar eclipse in the U.S.
traveling from coast to coast, will be in 2045.