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‘Pac-Man Sun’: NASA Probe Sees Solar Eclipse in Space

A NASA spacecraft has captured stunning footage of Tuesday’s (Feb. 21) partial solar eclipse, which left our star looking briefly like a huge celestial Pac-Man.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was watching Tuesday morning when the new moon crossed part of the sun’s face in a partial eclipse that was visible only from space. SDO snapped a video and photos of the solar eclipse from its lofty perch 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth.

“It’s a PacMan sun! The moon is transiting between @NASA_SDO and the sun today!” SDO officials wrote Tuesday in a post to @Camilla_SDO, the mission’s mascot Twitter account, referring to the circular video game hero that chows down on ghosts and dots.

The partial solar eclipse provided more than just pretty pictures, however. During its travels, the moon briefly blocked sunspot AR1422, an active region that is blasting strong ultraviolet emissions into space.