Earth’s Diamond Ring

On February 10, 2009, the Japanese lunar explorer “KAGUYA” (or SELENE) successfully took moving images of the precise Earth rise moment when the Earth looked like a diamond ring using the onboard high definition camera.

The moment came when a penumbral lunar eclipse occurred and sunlight was covered by the Earth. During that time, since the view of the Sun from the KAGUYA was mostly covered by the Earth, the KAGUYA observed that the Earth looked like a diamond ring. This is the first time that this phenomenon was shot from the Moon.

Credit: JAXA