ESA satellite captures 2026 eclipse shadow from space

The European Space Agency has released an impressive video showing the Moon's shadow moving across Europe during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026. The entire event was captured from geostationary orbit. The footage provides a rare view of the eclipse, which briefly plunged parts of the continent into darkness. Between 8:26 p.m. and 8:34 p.m. CEST, a narrow area covering Greenland, Iceland and Spain, as well as part of northern Portugal, experienced a total solar eclipse. A look back at the 2026 total solar eclipse, when day briefly turned into night in parts of Europe. Features photos from the ground and from space, as well as a look-back at our in-person event in León and live broadcast from Javalambre 👉https://t.co/f6Jk2rCNLB… pic.twitter.com/pR2NEw4z6Q — European Space Agency (@esa) August 14, 2026 According to ESA, the satellite is positioned about 36,000 kilometers above Earth and has its sensors focused on Europe and northern Africa. This allowed it to track the Moon's shadow from where it began over Greenland and Iceland to where it ended in northeastern Portugal and Spain. People on the ground were able to see the total eclipse for several minutes. However, because the satellite was much farther away, it was able to capture the shadow's entire movement in a single video animation. The footage clearly shows that the shadow appears much larger and moves much faster from space than it does to people watching the eclipse from the ground. Solar eclipse as seen from space! From its vantage point in space, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I1) captured the Moon's dark shadow as it passed over Earth's surface – converging with the advancing twilight shadow as dusk fell over Europe.… pic.twitter.com/dAQVyuXiIP — European Space Agency (@esa) August 13, 2026