The great North American solar eclipse of Aug. 21 may be in the history books, but NASA has given us a chance to the see the event from a new perspective. The space agency released an image on Tuesday of the eclipse shadow falling on Earth as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which hangs out in orbit around the moon.
The LRO normally monitors the moon, but had to turn around to point its cameras at Earth to see the shadow created by the moon blocking out the sun's light. The center of the shadow in this photo is near Nashville, Tennessee.
The average distance from the Earth to the moon is around 240,000 miles (390,000 kilometers), so the LRO offers a unique perspective on our planet.
NASA has pointed the LRO at an eclipse before, delivering a view of an eclipse shadow falling on the planet in May 2012. This latest image gives us another eye-opening glimpse at the celestial event and just how different it looks from far, far away.
