What Is a Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse is when the Sun gets eclipsed, which means the Moon is in between the Sun and the Earth. You can remember this by the "s" in solar because the Sun starts with an "s" too.  During a solar eclipse you can’t see the Sun because the Moon blocks it. Even though the Moon is smaller than the Sun, the Moon is closer to Earth than the Sun is. If this really doesn’t make sense to you, consider trying it with your thumb. During a solar eclipse the Moon works just like your thumb to block out the Sun. Look at somebody and place your thumb in front of your eye, and notice that the closer you move your thumb towards your eye, the less you can see of the person. That is how the Moon works in this situation. The Moon still isn’t close enough to Earth to block out all the Sun and its rays, which is still a total solar eclipse, though. Since the Moon doesn’t block out all of the rays of light coming from the Sun, the Moon gets pitch black but with a bright corona surrounding it. The corona is made by the very edge of the Sun that the Moon isn’t blocking.

There is an average of only two solar eclipses a year just like lunar eclipses. Solar eclipses last for only a couple of minutes. Solar eclipses can only happen when there’s a new moon because this is the only time when the Sun, the Moon, and Earth are in that order. Solar eclipses don’t occur every time there’s a new moon because generally the Moon orbits either higher or lower around the Sun than the Earth orbits around the Sun. That’s the same reason why lunar eclipses don’t always happen when there’s a full moon.

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All pictures courtesy of NASA unless otherwise noted