The total eclipse of the Sun on July 22, 2009, darkened skies over Japan, Korea, and eastern China as NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of part of the region affected by the eclipse at 11:10 a.m. Seoul time (2:10 UTC) on July 22.
Depending on where one observed it from Earth, the eclipse presented a different appearance. (It was not visible at all in the Western Hemisphere.) The disk of the Moon completely hid the Sun for more than 6 minutes over the Pacific Ocean—the longest duration of this eclipse.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
