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A Lunar Eclipse from Both Sides: Earth and Moon Witness a Celestial Spectacle

The recent total lunar eclipse, a captivating event that painted the Earth’s moon a striking reddish hue – often referred to as a "blood moon" – was not only a treat for skywatchers on Earth. This cosmic alignment, where the Earth positioned itself perfectly between the sun and the moon, also presented a unique and contrasting spectacle from the perspective of our celestial neighbor. While those on Earth marveled at the dimmed and reddened moon, observers on the lunar surface witnessed something akin to a total solar eclipse.

Adding to the significance of this event, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, a privately developed spacecraft from Texas, successfully captured this phenomenon. Stationed on the moon’s Earth-facing side, Blue Ghost managed to document the eclipse between Thursday night and Friday morning, marking a significant milestone in commercial space exploration.

From our terrestrial vantage point, the lunar eclipse unfolded as a slow dimming of the moon, eventually transforming it into a reddish orb. This effect occurs because, even when the Earth blocks direct sunlight, some light is still refracted through our atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere filters out most of the blue light, allowing the red wavelengths to reach the lunar surface, giving it its characteristic "blood moon" appearance.

However, the view from the Blue Ghost lander was radically different. Instead of seeing a darkened moon, the spacecraft’s cameras captured the image of Earth as a dark disk, surrounded by a brilliant ring of light – the sun’s corona. This is the same awe-inspiring view experienced during a total solar eclipse on Earth, when the moon completely blocks the sun’s disk, revealing the sun’s outer atmosphere.

The rarity of such an event being witnessed from the moon cannot be overstated. While lunar eclipses are relatively common from Earth’s perspective, it is much less frequent for a spacecraft to be operational on the moon precisely when the Earth, sun, and moon align to create this celestial event.

In fact, more than half a century has passed since an American spacecraft has been on the moon during an event appearing as a total lunar eclipse on Earth. Firefly Aerospace’s achievement, occurring toward the end of its 14-day mission, also marks a first for an American commercial company.

The Blue Ghost lander began its observations of the eclipse around 1:30 a.m. EST Friday, utilizing its landing site in Mare Crisium as a base. Mare Crisium, a vast 300-mile-wide basin on the near side of the moon, is believed to have been formed by ancient volcanic activity. The period of totality, when the Earth completely obscured the sun’s disk, lasted for over two hours, with the entire eclipse process concluding around 6 a.m.

On Friday morning, Firefly Aerospace released two images captured by the lander’s wide-lens camera mounted on its top deck, providing the public with an unprecedented view of Earth eclipsing the sun from the lunar surface. The task of capturing these images was not without its challenges. Because the sunlight was temporarily blocked, the solar-powered lander had to rely on its batteries to maintain power.

Beyond simply capturing images, Firefly Aerospace had also planned to use a suite of NASA scientific instruments onboard the lander to measure changes in the lunar environment during the eclipse. This would have provided valuable data on how the lunar surface responds to the sudden darkness and temperature changes that occur during an eclipse. Unfortunately, Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander would have also documented the eclipse during its own lunar mission, had it not tipped over and died during its March 6 landing on the moons south pole.

The total lunar eclipse witnessed on Earth manifested as a red moon. This celestial event requires the moon to be full and the Earth to pass directly between the sun and the moon. Earth’s shadow cast over the lunar surface causes the moon to appear dimmer and more reddish than usual.

From the lunar surface, as the Earth passed in front of the sun, our blue planet would have appeared as a dark sphere, surrounded by a halo of light as it blocked the sun above the moons horizon. This phenomenon, which many Americans witnessed on Earth during the recent total solar eclipse, has now been observed from another world.

Blue Ghost’s successful observation of the solar eclipse from the lunar surface places it among a select few missions to achieve this feat. NASA’s Surveyor 3 mission, which landed on the moon in 1967 in preparation for the Apollo missions, holds the distinction of being the first to observe a solar eclipse from the moon. During that event, while Surveyor 3 captured a solar eclipse from the moon, observers on Earth witnessed a lunar eclipse. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was also flying near the moon during the 2017 total solar eclipse and managed to image the moon’s shadow over a large region of the United States during the event.

Witnessing a solar eclipse from outer space has been an uncommon experience for humans as well. In 1966, the Gemini XII astronauts were the first to photograph a solar eclipse from Earth’s orbit as they passed over the Galapagos Islands. Later, in 1969, the Apollo 12 astronauts, during their return journey from the moon, experienced a solar eclipse as their spacecraft passed through Earth’s shadow. From their perspective, the Earth appeared approximately 15 times larger than the sun.

For Blue Ghost, observing and capturing the eclipse was an unexpected but welcome bonus. The primary objective of the mission, which launched on January 15th from Florida, was to deploy 10 NASA science instruments on the lunar surface.

The lander touched down less than two weeks ago near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature on the moon. Its ongoing operations aim to gather data about the lunar environment, which will be invaluable for NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to return humans to the moon in the coming years. It has been over fifty years since American astronauts last set foot on the moon, during the Apollo missions that ended in 1972.

Blue Ghost is expected to continue its operations until Sunday, gathering further data on the lunar environment for NASA and capturing a lunar sunset before powering down as it enters the frigid lunar night.