When is the next solar eclipse? Yesterday and today — but they were not reported in advance. Why? They were only in space and only by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The event, the first of which occurred during the new moon on Sunday, Apr. 27, 2025, was captured in various images by the spacecraft, which it sent back to Earth minutes later.
Called a “lunar transit” by NASA, the eclipse was partial, with up to 23% of the sun’s surface being blocked by the moon on Sunday and just 2% on Monday. According to NASA, there will be a huge 62% eclipse on July 25.
NASA’s Unique View Of The Eclipse
Whether you see an eclipse is entirely down to your location in space. After all, the moon always projects a shadow in space — it’s whether you travel through that shadow, in a spacecraft or on Earth, that matters.
Launched in 2010, SDO sends back real-time high-resolution images of the sun in various wavelengths, focusing on sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The aim is to help scientists determine the causes of severe space weather, but the images are publicly available.
SDO orbits Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, about 35,789 km (22,238 miles) above, with its orbital path calculated to avoid eclipses as much as possible. After all, it’s there to observe the solar surface. Its point of view of the moon is similar to Earth’s, but not quite the same, as evidenced by the fact that it occasionally sees an eclipse that we on Earth do not.
Shape Of The Moon
Since it has no atmosphere, SDO shows the moon’s edge sharply. As a consequence, there are mountains visible on the limb. This rough profile of the moon was partly the cause of minor issues during the total solar eclipse in North America on Apr. 8, 20204, when calculations revealed that the path of totality was incorrect.
This isn’t the first time an eclipse has been seen by SDO or by astronauts in space. Several Apollo astronauts witnessed an eclipse of the sun as they traveled to the moon.
The eclipse images arrived the same week the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft sent back one of the most detailed images of the sun’s corona. It shows the sun’s hotter outer atmosphere, its corona, which is the source of the solar wind — a stream of charged particles coming at Earth from the sun — which in turn causes space weather.
The Next Eclipse On Earth
The next solar eclipse visible from Earth will occur on Sept. 21, 2025, but will only be seen from New Zealand, the South Pacific and Antarctica. Observers of a partial eclipse must always wear solar eclipse glasses to avoid the threat of blindness, while all cameras and telescopes will require solar filters.
The next total solar eclipse — the best kind, during which the moon momentarily blocks out all of the sun, allowing its corona to be seen with the naked eye — is on Aug. 12, 2026. It will be seen from within a narrow path of totality that passes through eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, with totality lasting just over two minutes. The next total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. will occur on Aug. 22, 2044.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
