Wow! Private lunar lander watches 'diamond ring' eclipse from the surface of the moon (photo)

a bright ring of light on a completely black background
A "diamond ring" phenomenon witnessed by Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander during a total lunar eclipse on March 14, 2025. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander continues to beam home incredible imagery from the surface of the moon.

Blue Ghost just sent back amazing photos of last night's "Blood Moon" total lunar eclipse from its perch in Mare Crisium, or "Sea of Crises," a vast basin on the northeastern region of the moon's near side. Blue Ghost landed there on March 2 and has been sending us stunning photos and videos of its moon excursion ever since.

In these most recent photos, Blue Ghost captured Earth blocking the sun during the eclipse at around 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT) on March 14. As the sun began to peek around Earth, it formed a bright ring of light in the dark lunar skies. "Blue Ghost got her first diamond ring!" Firefly Aerospace announced in an update accompanying the photo.

Firefly Aerospace celebrated the milestone in the update, touting the new age of private moon landers that has begun over the last year.

Related: Total lunar eclipse March 2025: Best photos of the "Blood Worm Moon"

"This marks the first time in history a commercial company was actively operating on the moon and able to observe a total solar eclipse where the Earth blocks the sun and casts a shadow on the lunar surface," the company wrote in the update. "This phenomenon occurred simultaneously as the lunar eclipse we witnessed on Earth."

In another photo taken some four hours before the "diamond ring" photo, Blue Ghost witnessed the beginning stages of the eclipse. Many of the lander's instruments and antennae can be seen in the photo alongside Blue Ghost's solar panels.

a bright sun can be seen in a totally black sky above solar panels and antennae. the grey, dusty surface of the moon can be seen extending into the background

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost moon lander captured Earth creating a solar eclipse as seen from its vantage point on March 14, 2025. On Earth, we saw a lunar eclipse. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

As Firefly noted in that update, Blue Ghost witnessed a solar eclipse  — Earth passing in front of the sun  — while we here on Earth saw a lunar eclipse as Earth's shadow passed over the moon.

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth, the sun and the moon line up so that our planet passes between the sun and the moon; that's why viewers on the moon such as lunar landers see a solar eclipse while we see a lunar eclipse.

The "diamond ring" phenomenon can also be viewed from Earth during solar eclipses. This occurs as bright points of light appear when sunlight pokes through valleys and mountain ridges on the moon, just before or after the period of totality.

a ring of light with a bright dot along the leftmost edge, on a black background

A "diamond ring" seen during a total lunar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. (Image credit: a. v. ley/Getty Images)

These aren't the only diamond rings seen during total eclipses, however. During the total solar eclipse that swept across North America on April 8, 2024, Space.com's own Josh Dinner used the historic occasion to present his own diamond ring as he proposed to his now-fiancée.

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Brett Tingley
Managing Editor, Space.com

Brett is curious about emerging aerospace technologies, alternative launch concepts, military space developments and uncrewed aircraft systems. Brett's work has appeared on Scientific American, The War Zone, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery and more. Brett has English degrees from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett enjoys skywatching throughout the dark skies of the Appalachian mountains.

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