Author: Christina PortocarreroAbout a few days ago I watched a video in class about solar eclipses. I was already planning on doing my science blog about eclipses, so I decided to pay close attention and get some information from the video. First of all, some people don’t know what an eclipse is, so I will start off with explaining it, and then I will go into further detail. An eclipse is when the moon blocks the sun while still in perfect alignment with the Earth, and wherever the moon’s shadow lands, that’s what part of the world will be able to witness the eclipse.
There are 4 different types of solar eclipses. The first one is a total eclipse which is when the moon fully covers the sun. The second is an annular eclipse which is when the moon is slightly further away from the earth so it results in what looks like a ring of light. This ring is also known as the “Ring of Fire” around the moon. The moon can be further away because the earth’s orbit isn’t circular. Next, there is a partial eclipse, which is when the moon covers only part of the sun, so it looks like someone took a bite out of the sun. Last but definitely not least is the hybrid eclipse. A hybrid eclipse is when the eclipse changes appearance as the moon passes over the sun. Now that I’ve finished naming the different types of eclipses I am going to share a couple of facts that I find interesting. As I mentioned earlier, a total eclipse is when the moon completely covers the sun. Well, isn’t the sun a lot bigger than the moon? This is very much true; the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, but the moon is 400 times closer to the Earth, resulting in the sun and the moon seeming equal from our viewpoint. I find this pretty crazy. The other fact I want to share is that there can be, at maximum, five solar eclipses a year! I think this is cool because this means that there can be a solar eclipse almost every 2 months! So, that was all the information about solar eclipses that I wanted to share. I hope that you have learned a few things about what exactly a solar eclipse is, the four types of eclipses, and interesting facts about them. To find out more information, you can check out the website that I used for information: https://theplanets.org/solar-eclipses/ Comments are closed.
|