An awe-inspiring new image has captured the moment a small and bright Mars rose from behind the moon's crater during a recent eclipse.
The Red Planet was temporarily obscured from Earth's view by a passing moon during a lunar event that lasts for around an hour. According to Live Science's sister site Space.com, the Dec. 7 eclipse was particularly dramatic because Mars was at opposition, meaning Earth was directly between it and the sun.
Andrew McCarthy, a professional astronomer and Arizona resident, took the new image and shared it on his social media accounts.
McCarthy wrote that Mars peeked out from behind the moon. It was amazing to see another planet on the horizon.
Mars may be tearing its largest moon apart.
Many people captured pictures and videos of Mars disappearing or reappearing from behind the moon because of the Red Planet's unusual brightness. McCarthy said that capturing a detailed photo of the event was a challenge.
McCarthy used a technique known as "lucky imaging," which involves taking quick bursts of tens, hundreds or thousands of photos and stacking them on top of each other to form a single, detailed image. McCarthy had just 10 seconds to take his images because the moon travels so fast. Around 2,000 images were taken during this brief window.
McCarthy said that it was one of the most difficult shots he had captured. It's one of my favorites since I started this hobby.
The image of Earth disappearing behind the lunar surface was captured by the capsule as it flew past the moon.
McCarthy captured a time-lapse image of a 1 million mile-long (1.6 million kilometer) coronal mass ejection from the sun.
The original article was published on Live Science.com.
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