NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has taken some stunning pictures of the lunar transit when the moon appeared to move between the spacecraft and the sun on August 2, 2016.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. It was launched on February 11, 2010, and is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program.
The main aim of the Living With a Star program is to understand those aspects of the Sun–Earth system which are directly affecting life and society. And the goal of the SDO is to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere.
As per NASA, the SDO suffered a sudden fault while observing the eclipse as it was not able to return back into the science mode, leaving the spacecraft in inertial mode.
“The spacecraft did not go back into science mode at the end of the transit. SDO is currently in inertial mode. The team is receiving data from the spacecraft and is bringing SDO’s instruments back online,” NASA said.
However, NASA reported that among the spacecraft’s three science instruments - the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment are online and Earth is receiving science data from them.
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