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A spacecraft tasked with keeping a robotic eye on the sun caught sight of a double eclipse of our closest star last week. 。

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured a high-definition video of the Earth and moon blocking the light of the sun at the same time on Sept. 1.
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In the footage, Earth passes in front of the sun first, with the moon following shortly afterward. 
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"The end of the Earth eclipse happened just in time for SDO to catch the final stages of the lunar transit," NASA said in a statement. 。

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"In the SDO data, you can tell Earth and the moon’s shadows apart by their edges: Earth’s is fuzzy, while the moon’s is sharp and distinct."。

The Earth's diffuse edge is due to the planet's atmosphere, making its margins somewhat blurry during this kind of event, NASA said. The moon, on the other hand, has a defined edge because it lacks an atmosphere. 。

This eclipse could also be seen on the ground from parts of the African continent. 。

"The eclipse was what's known as a ring of fire, or annular, eclipse, which is similar to a total solar eclipse, except it happens when the moon is at a point in its orbit farther from Earth than average," NASA added. 。

That added distance makes the moon look smaller from Earth, meaning that it doesn't blot out the full face of the sun, leaving a "ring of fire" around the star from our perspective.。