Skip to main content

What is a Solar Eclipse ?

Sometimes when the moon orbits Earth, it moves between the sun and Earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching Earth. This causes an eclipse of the sunor solar eclipse. During a solar eclipse, the moon casts a shadow onto Earth.


There are three types of solar eclipses.
The first is a total solar eclipse. A total solar eclipse is only visible from a small area on Earth. The people who see the total eclipse are in the center of the moon’s shadow when it hits Earth. The sky becomes very dark, as if it were night. For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line.
The second type of solar eclipse is a partial solar eclipse. This happens when the sun, moon and Earth are not exactly lined up. The sun appears to have a dark shadow on only a small part of its surface.
The third type is an annular (ANN you ler) solar eclipse. An annular eclipse happens when the moon is farthest from Earth. Because the moon is farther away from Earth, it seems smaller. It does not block the entire view of the sun. The moon in front of the sun looks like a dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk. This creates what looks like a ring around the moon.
During a solar eclipse, the moon casts two shadows on Earth. The first shadow is called the umbra (UM bruh). This shadow gets smaller as it reaches Earth. It is the dark center of the moon’s shadow. The second shadow is called the penumbra (pe NUM bruh). The penumbra gets larger as it reaches Earth. People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse. People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse.
Solar eclipses happen once every 18 months. Unlike lunar eclipses, solar eclipses only last for a few minutes.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is Reflection of Light ?

Reflection is a very common word and is related to the fields of physics and mathematics. The basic meaning of a reflection is  ‘Something Returned in Response’ . Even in our conversation we use this term at times, to mean a some one’s reaction. In optics, it relates to an image of an object. Light rays are basically wave motions and they are capable of being reflected by an interface in between two mediums. Such interfaces are called  Light Reflectors .  The most common Light reflector is the one we use many times a day, which is nothing but a plane mirror. But it is not only a plane mirror reflects light. Even a curved mirror does that though the nature of reflection of light by curved mirrors is different. YouTube Link -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PRRUgoTSro Credits -  http://physics.tutorvista.com/light/reflection.html

What is HUNTERS MOON ?

The term “ Hunters Moon ” is used traditionally to refer to a full moon that appears during the month of October. It is preceded by the appearance of a “Harvest Moon”, which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox (which falls on the 22nd or 23rd of September). It is also known as a sanguine or “ Blood Moon ". The Hunter’s Moon typically appears in October, except once every four years when it doesn’t appear until November.  The name dates back to the First Nations of North America. It is so-called because it was during the month of October, when the deers had fatted themselves over the course of the summer, that hunters tracked and killed prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the coming winter. YouTube Link  -   http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hunters-moon-2016-what-can-9050088 Credits -  https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3819/10355721434_6992b719fa_b.jpg

What is Universe ?

The universe is all the matter, energy, and space that exist. We can observe only a part of it - the observable universe. The entire, universe, including the part we cannot see, may be infinite. Galaxies form and evolve within an expanding and cooling universe. Because light takes billions of years to cross the cosmos, we see distant galaxies as they were at earlier times. Astronomers not only theorize about cosmic evolution - they can actually observe its various stages. The Big Bang is the scientific description of the origin of the cosmos. It describes the beginning of the universe as an explosion of space, which has expanded and cooled ever since. If we rewind the expansion of space and go backward in time, galaxies crowd closer and closer together in the past. Ultimately, all matter and energy is compressed at extremely high density and temperature. The observable universe fits within a volume smaller than a grain of sand. That superdense medium exploded in the Big Bang, l...