Solar Eclipse: Stunning Nasa animation shows the moon's shadow moving across Earth as Asian countries are momentarily plunged into darkness ...See photos

Thousands of tourists and astronomy enthusiasts flocked to Indonesia to catch the country's first solar eclipse in nearly 33 years - but Nasa has revealed an even more spectacular view.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured 13 stunning images capturing the shadow of the Moon marching across Earth's sunlit face.

They then turned this into a stunning animation to give a unique glimpse.

The animation above was assembled from 13 images acquired on March 9, 2016, by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) and Cassegrain telescope on the DSCOVR satellite.

See more images below:

The shadow of the new Moon starts crossing the Indian Ocean and marches past Indonesia and Australia into the open waters and islands of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) and the Pacific Ocean.

This combined photo shows the moon passing in front of the sun (top left to bottom right) during a total solar eclipse in the city of Ternate, in Indonesia's Maluku Islands, on March 9

An aeroplane flies past the sun as it goes into a partial solar eclipse in Singapore on March 9

A partial solar eclipse is pictured above a cloud formation at dawn in Singapore on March 9. The eclipse was also visible around the region in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, only some parts of the country got to see the sun totally eclipsed by the moon, which happened almost immediately after the sun rose

School children watch a partial solar eclipse at the Planetarium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hundreds gathered to watch the solar eclipse on the banks of the Musi River in Palembang, Indonesia

Thousands of tourists and astronomy enthusiasts flocked to Indonesia to catch the country's first solar eclipse in nearly 33 years on Wednesday morning. Indonesia's capital Jakarta was not within the eclipse path, but the Sumatran port city of Palembang was

A solar eclipse happens when the moon casts a shadow on the earth as it passes between the earth and the sun.

At least twice a year, the orbits of the moon and Earth block the sun to cause a shadow on Earth.

Most eclipses are partial, but when the moon is in close to the earth, it results in a total eclipse.

The last total solar eclipse was in March 2015, and the one before that was in November 2012.

The total eclipse was visible within a roughly 62 to 93-mile (100-150km) wide path that started in the Indian Ocean and sliced across parts of Indonesia including Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi before ending in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Now that's a view of the #Eclipse2016 from flight #870. Photo: Anchorage flight attendants Rachael C. & Sofia S. pic.twitter.com/Sa6qOUysRu
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) March 9, 2016