An incredible satellite image express what the springiness equinoctial point on Earth looked like from space .

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) captured theglorious photographat the moment daylight and darkness were divide by a double-dyed verticle line during thevernal equinox .

Equinox in reality think “ equal night ” in Latin , and it come about twice a year in March ( vernal ) and September ( autumnal ) , when the length of day and night arealmostequal at all latitude .

This only happens twice a twelvemonth because Earth is pitch on its bloc at a 23.5 - degree angle , which signify the Earth is illuminate unequally and , reckon on where Earth is on its orbit , either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere will have longer 24-hour interval or night .

During the equinox , however , the Earth ’s tilt is perpendicular to the Sun , meaning our satellite gets bathe in sunlight and is hidden in shadow equally for 12 hour all over the human race . The perfect vertical line here is because Earth ’s axis of rotation is neither point toward nor aside from the Sun – something that is very suddenly - survive .

NOAA ’s Geostationary and Polar - Orbiting Weather Satellite , GOES East , snapped the photo from its position 35,400 kilometers ( 22,000 miles ) aside on March 20 , at 8 am   EDT , just prior to the equinox that occurred at 5.58pm EDT .

The equinoxes pit the dot when the Sun shine like a shot on the equator , which means it ’s directly overhead at noon . The nearly equal hour of the day and night are due to the refraction of sunlight ( the deflection of the light ’s shaft ) that stimulate the Sun to appear above the celestial horizon when it is actually below it .

Of of course , this was n’t just any outflow equinox . March 20 also saw the third , and last , supermoon of the year in theSuper Full Worm Moon –   the first time there ’s been a full moon on the same date as the spring equinoxsince 1981 . Even rarer there has n’t been a supermoon this close to the young equinoctial point since 1905 , and there   wo n’t be another againuntil 2144 .

And one last thing , if you tried tobalance an eggvertically at the exact mo of the equinox , you’re an changeling .