JAKARTA, March 9 (UPI) -- The new moon passed directly in front of the sun over southeast Asia early Wednesday morning, creating a total eclipse of the sun.
The eclipse, which was captured on time-lapse video and shared on Facebook by NASA, caused the morning sky over Indonesia and other parts of southeast Asia to briefly go dark Wednesday morning as the moon passed between the sun and the earth.
Partial eclipses were reported at the same time in locations including Singapore, Hawaii and the westernmost parts of the contiguous United States.
NASA said prior to the eclipse that scientists would be using the phenomenon to study the sun's atmosphere.
"They plan to take 59 several-second exposures of the sun in just over three minutes, capturing data on the innermost parts of the sun's volatile, superhot atmosphere -- a region we can only observe during total solar eclipses when the sun's overwhelmingly bright face is completely blocked by the moon," the space agency said.
Solar Eclipse 2016
Wow, a total solar eclipse! See the moon pass directly in front of the sun. It happened from 8:38 to 8:42 p.m. EST Tuesday. As the moon passed precisely between the sun and Earth – a relatively rare occurrence that happens only about once a year because of the fact that the moon and the sun do not orbit in the exact same plane – it blocked the sun’s bright face, revealing the tenuous and comparatively faint solar atmosphere, the corona.The total eclipse was only visible in parts of Southeast Asia Learn more about this event: https://youtu.be/MQjPFwcjh9c #eclipse2016Posted by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Tuesday, March 8, 2016