View a still image of this event here: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/7242079848
The joint JAXA/NASA Hinode mission captured this video of an annular eclipse of the Sun on May 20, 2012. During an annular eclipse the moon does not block the entirety of the sun, but leaves a bright ring of light visible at the edges. For the May eclipse, the moon was at the furthest distance from Earth that it ever achieves – meaning that it blocked the smallest possible portion of the sun, and leaves the largest possible bright ring around the outside. Scientists often use an eclipse to help calibrate the instruments on the telescope by focusing in on the edge of the moon as it crosses the sun and measuring how sharp it appears in the images.
Credit: JAXA/NASA/Hinode
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Innerspacealien, nicatombo, Kevin, Justin Cooper (Tripod Monkey), and 39 other people added this video to their favorites.

View 5 more comments
Happy Tinfoil Cat 12 months ago | reply
It did change. Look at the largest bright spot near the middle. It expanded downward.
Just put a ruler to it. It expanded ~5% the distance on the 2.7 million around disc, making it approximately 30,000 MPH but it is dwarfed by the sheer size.
dodagp 12 months ago | reply
Oh Gosh !!!!
That's totally compelling !
ROSIBEL ARRIAZA 12 months ago | reply
Que belleza. Dios eres sorprendente.
vladimir DGama 11 months ago | reply
lovely