Millions of people got a rare glimpse of a total solar eclipse on 12 August, as the moon aligned perfectly with Earth and the sun to cast a shadow that passed over Siberia, the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. It was the first total solar eclipse visible from Earth since early 2024.

Spain was the most populous region from which the total eclipse was visible, with the eclipse path passing across the country diagonally from the northern Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean Sea in the late afternoon of 12 August. The photo above was taken in Berlanga de Duero, 240 kilometres north-east of Madrid.

Observers at the Galactica astronomy centre in Teruel, Spain, were caught perfectly framed in this image. Although much of Spain saw a total eclipse, there was also a chance to witness a partial eclipse of around 90 per cent in Ireland, the UK, France, Italy and some parts of the north of Africa.

This composite image shows the progression of the eclipse from partial to total and back to partial again, over San MillĂĄn de los Caballeros, Spain.

Another composite image shows the total solar eclipse over the Mediterranean Sea, seen from Mallorca, Spain. It was the first such event visible from the country in over a century, with totality lasting around a minute.

A boat is captured here in line with the sun and the moon off the island of Ibiza.

The incredibly sharp collection of images above show the eclipse at various stages from Arija, Spain.

Spain will, surprisingly, see another total eclipse next year, on 2 August, along with Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

The first images of the impact crater caused by an out-of-control SpaceX craft have emerged. Part of a SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon at about 8700 kilometres per hour on 5 August.

The images were taken by the Danuri lunar orbiter, operated by the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA). They show both before and after the impact and reveal that the crash did indeed leave a crater.

The craft in question was the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched in January last year, carrying the Hakuto-R spacecraft from commercial company ispace – which, ironically, also crashed into the moon during an unsuccessful landing attempt.

Astronomers around the world had trained their telescopes on the spot in the hope of observing the impact, but its tiny size made it virtually impossible for amateur observers to make out.

KASA revealed the images and warned that videos being shared on social media purporting to show footage of the impact are fake.

It is thought that the almost 14-metre-long, 4000-kilogram Falcon upper stage impacted the moon at 5.35am BST on 5 August, near to Einstein crater – named for physicist Albert Einstein – which is towards the edge of the visible moon from Earth.

NASA had predicted prior to impact that the crash would create a crater 18 metres wide and 4 metres deep. Further images from a NASA lunar orbiter will provide more detail of the site in the coming days and weeks.

at the Open University, UK, says the images make it hard to be certain about the nature of the crater, but that higher-quality ones should emerge in time.

“The moon’s got about 100 million natural craters in that size range, so in the scheme of things, this is nothing,” he says. “You’ll get several a decade of this kind of size forming naturally.”

Unlike the Apollo lander sites, which have been photographed in great detail, the SpaceX impact site may not show any visible evidence of the craft because of its high impact speed, says Rothery. But the ejected regolith will probably be lighter in colour than the surrounding surface, at least until it is weathered by sunlight over tens of millions of years.

Some had suggested in the wake of the impact that the new crater be named after SpaceX owner Elon Musk, but the suggestion has been shot down by astronomers.

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, chair of the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature, which oversees the naming of celestial objects and features, says it wouldn’t be in line with rules on such matters.

“Formal feature naming is restricted to natural geological formations that serve a long-term cartographic and scientific reference purpose for the global community,” she says. “Spacecraft impact sites are frequently given informal or working nicknames by mission teams. The [SpaceX] mission team can give it any nickname they like, but it will not become an official name.”

Furthermore, if a crater is named to commemorate a person, this person has to have been deceased for at least three years, says Schulz, while Musk is still alive.