Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2023 September 17
     [2]A dark circle is seen in the image center. On both the left and
    right of the circle are a series of bright half-rings. Some parts of
    these bright half rings are dark, and the dark areas look similar to
    mountains. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

            Moon Mountains Magnified during Ring of Fire Eclipse
            Credit & Copyright: [3]Wang Letian ([4]Eyes at Night)

   Explanation: What are those dark streaks in this composite image of a
   solar eclipse? They are reversed shadows of mountains at the edge of
   the Moon. The center image, captured from [5]Xiamen, [6]China, has the
   Moon's center directly in front of the Sun's center. [7]The Moon,
   though, was [8]too far from [9]the Earth to completely block the entire
   Sun. Light that streamed around the edges of the Moon is called a
   [10]ring of fire. Images at each end of the sequence show [11]sunlight
   that streamed through lunar valleys. As the Moon moved further in front
   of the Sun, left to right, only the higher peaks on the Moon's
   perimeter could block sunlight. Therefore, the dark streaks are
   projected, [12]distorted, reversed, and magnified [13]shadows of
   mountains at the Moon's edge. Bright areas are called [14]Baily's
   Beads. Only people in a narrow swath across Earth's [15]Eastern
   Hemisphere were able to view this full annular solar eclipse in 2020.
   Next month, though, a narrow swath crossing [16]both North and South
   America will be exposed to the [17]next annular solar eclipse. And next
   April, a [18]total solar eclipse will be visible across North America.

    Open Science: [19]Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
                                   Library
                       Tomorrow's picture: sprite tree
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    Authors & editors: [31]Robert Nemiroff ([32]MTU) & [33]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([34]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [35]Specific rights apply.
              [36]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [37]ASD at [38]NASA / [39]GSFC,
                         [40]NASA Science Activation
                           & [41]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2309/BeadMountains_Letian_3000.jpg
   3. http://www.luckwlt.com/About Me.html
   4. http://www.luckwlt.com/
   5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5nVmMxIwY
   6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China
   7. https://moon.nasa.gov/
   8. https://eclipse.aas.org/sites/eclipse.aas.org/files/Total-Annular-TQ.jpg
   9. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200615.html
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170301.html
  12. https://i.pinimg.com/236x/69/ff/c4/69ffc42ba1c739e25ed76fcaa6555a0e.jpg
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180507.html
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baily's_beads
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Hemisphere
  16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas
  17. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170912.html
  19. https://ascl.net/code/all
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230916.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  29. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230917
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230918.html
  31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  32. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  33. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  34. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  36. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  37. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  38. https://www.nasa.gov/
  39. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  40. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  41. http://www.mtu.edu/