SOLAR ECLIPSE
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Context
- People in India saw a partial solar eclipse.
What is a solar eclipse?
- A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is positioned in between the Sun and the Earth for a few minutes. Under certain-alignment, the Moon partially or fully blocks the Sun’s light and instead casts its shadow on Earth. That is why, there can be a partial or a total solar eclipse, depending on how much portion of the Sun’s disc gets hidden by the Moon.
- In a partial solar eclipse, only the edge of the Moon’s shadow falls on the northern hemisphere, which is where Tuesday’s eclipse will be visible.
Types of Solar Eclipses
There are 4 different types of solar eclipses. How much of the Sun's disk is eclipsed, the eclipse magnitude, depends on which part of the Moon's shadow falls on Earth.
- Partial solar eclipses occur when the Moon only partially obscures the Sun's disk and casts only its penumbra on Earth.
- Annular solar eclipses take place when the Moon's disk is not big enough to cover the entire disk of the Sun, and the Sun's outer edges remain visible to form a ring of fire in the sky. An annular eclipse of the Sun takes place when the Moon is near apogee, and the Moon's antumbra falls on Earth.
- Total solar eclipses happen when the Moon completely covers the Sun, and it can only take place when the Moon is near perigee, the point of the Moon's orbit closest to Earth. You can only see a total solar eclipse if you're in the path where the Moon casts its darkest shadow, the umbra.
- Hybrid Solar Eclipses, also known as annular-total eclipses, are the rarest type. They occur when the same eclipse changes from an annular to a total solar eclipse, and/or vice versa, along the eclipse's path.
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