What Is a Solar Eclipse? Curious Answers To Simple Questions

What are eclipses?

Eclipses are rare, especially those of Sun, the human being has observed them with admiration and respect since time immemorial.

It is believed that the stone circle of Stonehenge, dating back to the Bronze Age, was built to predict lunar eclipses.

In order for an eclipse to occur, the Sun, the Earth and the Moon must be aligned.

The cause of the eclipses is the very shadow that the stars generate. Like any solid object bathed in light, Earth and Moon, illuminated by the Sun, cast shadows in space.

The light of the Sun comes from a large disk and not from a single point, so it gives the Earth a shadow with a soft and brighter end known as "penumbra."

For a lunar eclipse to occur there must be a full moon and the Earth must be between the Sun and the Moon.

What happens then is that the Moon enters the shadow zone of the Earth and, if the eclipse is total, disappears from our view.

In order for a solar eclipse to occur, there must be a new moon and the Sun and Moon to be in conjunction.

What happens on this occasion is that the Moon hides the Sun from the perspective of the Earth, and the Sun can only be seen as a diffuse circle in which its perimeter glows dimly.

Lunar eclipse.

Moon eclipses are much more frequent than Sun eclipses and are much more durable.

The moon may take about 105 minutes to emerge from the Earth's shadow, while the eclipses of the Sun last only seven minutes - visible, as they can be seen by anyone who is facing the Moon at the moment, while The Sun eclipse is visible only in a diameter of 275 kilometers.

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