06/13/2013 12:00 AM EDT
Two
or three times a year, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observes the
moon traveling across the sun, blocking its view. While this obscures
solar observations for a short while, it offers the chance for an
interesting view of the shadow of the moon.
The moon's crisp horizon can
be seen up against the sun, because the moon does not have an
atmosphere. (At other times of the year, when Earth blocks SDO's view,
the Earth's horizon looks fuzzy due to its atmosphere.) If one looks
closely at such a crisp border, the features of the moon's topography
are visible, as is the case in this image from Oct. 7, 2010.
This
recently inspired two NASA visualizers to overlay a 3-dimensional model
of the moon based on data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or
LRO, into the shadow of the SDO image. Such a task is fairly tricky, as
the visualizers — Scott Wiessinger who typically works with the SDO
imagery and Ernie Wright who works with the LRO imagery -- had to
precisely match up data from the correct time and viewpoint for the two
separate instruments. The end result is an awe-inspiring image of the
sun and the moon.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO/LRO/GSFC
