Click for movie. Also available on YouTube.
XRT Watches as the Moon Flashes Far Side to Sun
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Hinode XRT observed a solar eclipse when the Moon passed in front of the Sun in early January 2019. Because of the Hinode spacecraft's orbit, XRT gets to see eclipses much more frequently than any single spot on the Earth does. In this movie, just before the Moon eclipses the Sun, faint radial structures outline the solar magnetic field extending out from the solar north pole. In order to see these structures, the XRT took deep exposures causing the brighter regions to saturate the camera. It is part of Hinode's mission to study these structures to understand the mechanisms that lead to their formation.
The Moon rotates on its axis
at the same rate that it revolves around the Earth, and therefore we always see the same side of the Moon called the near side.
The side we don't see is referred to
as the far side of the Moon. Despite Earth's limited Moon view, both faces of the Moon
receive ample sunlight due to the Moon's rotation.
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(Prepared by Patricia Jibben & Mark Weber)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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