The total eclipse of the sun was visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia and West Siberia, Mongolia and China, the space agency said. (Video)
The eclipse swept across Earth in a narrow path that began in Canada's northern province of Nunavut and ended in northern China's Silk Road region at sunset.
A partial eclipse was seen within the much broader path of the moon's penumbral shadow, which included northeastern North America, and most of Europe and Asia. It is still visible in Arabia, India and Southeast Asia.
The partial eclipse will end entirely at 14:38 GMT.
In Russia's Novosibirsk, directly under the path of the eclipse, thousands of people, including foreign tourists, watched the rare phenomenon through special spectacles. A wind began to blow and temperature dropped noticeably when the moon passed between the Earth and the sun.
Main thoroughfares in the Siberian city were jammed as drivers stopped their cars to watch the eclipse. The total eclipse lasted two minutes and 18 seconds and was over at 5:46 p.m. local time (10:46 GMT).
Over 10,000 people gathered in the central square of another West Siberian city, Nadym, to watch the eclipse.
"It has been raining all day long today, but five minutes before the total eclipse it stopped as if by magic," an eyewitness said. "There were three minutes of complete darkness... Camera flashes looked like golden rain."
"It was awesome! I was not scared, although it was pitch dark," she added.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, where only a partial eclipse could be seen, people stopped work to look at the darkening sun, protecting their eyes with sunglasses or dark sweaters, while many others tried to take photographs of the phenomenon.
Russian and foreign 'New Age' tourists also gathered in Russia's Altai Mountains to observe the total eclipse.
The next total solar eclipse is due on July 22, 2009 in central India, Nepal and Bhutan.
In Russia, a full eclipse will next be observed on April 20, 2061. It will be visible in the Urals and the south of European Russia. Partial solar eclipses are due in some parts of Chukotka in the Far East and the Bering Sea islands on March 30, 2033, and on April 9, 2043 in Magadan, also in the Far East.
