An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) managed to photograph the stunning spectacle of a lunar eclipse that took place on May 16, 2022. Samantha Cristoforetti, who recently arrived at the ISS, posted on Twitter several photos of the partially eclipsed Moon, visible from the orbital station about 400 km above the Earth.
“The partially shaded Moon is playing hide-and-seek with our solar panel,” Cristoforetti wrote on her social network page, which she accompanied by stunning images of this phenomenon against the background of the space station.
What is a lunar eclipse?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is directly between the Sun and the Moon, as a result of which it casts a shadow on our nearest celestial neighbor. Partial lunar eclipses occur when only part of the moon is in the shadow of the Earth. This is a fairly common phenomenon, but total lunar eclipses happen much less often.
The recent total lunar eclipse was best seen from America, although skywatchers in parts of Africa and Europe were also able to enjoy the phenomenon. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on November 8, 2022, and it will be visible in some parts of the United States and Asia, but after that earthlings will have to wait until May 2025.
Samantha Cristoforetti
The astronaut of the European Space Agency, Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, arrived at the space station for a six-month stay in orbit. Her fellow SpaceX Crew-4 crew members were NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins.
Samantha Cristoforetti is an active TikTok user and even became the first space tiktoker. Moreover, at Eurovision 2022, where Ukraine won, the astronaut even supported the international competition by unfolding a poster on board the ISS.
La musica e volo spaziale – sì! Crea la giusta atmosfera durante il lancio, ci motiva nella nostra palestra spaziale, ci aiuta a rilassarci nel tempo libero e ci connette con gli altri. Evviva lo spirito @Eurovision! Grazie Torino ???? #ESC2022 #Eurovision #MissionMinerva pic.twitter.com/7gWup1kZcy
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) May 15, 2022
All seven ISS crew members are now waiting for the arrival of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which is preparing for its second test flight on Thursday, May 19, after a failed mission in December 2019. The unmanned Starliner is expected to dock with the space station on Friday for a short time before returning to Earth in a crucial test mission for Boeing and NASA.
Earlier, eyewitnesses took stunning photos of the “Blood Moon” 2022.
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