What Causes A Solar Eclipse And Why Are They So Rare

The solar eclipse that will cross the continental u s.

What causes a solar eclipse and why are they so rare.

In a total solar eclipse the moon completely covers the sun. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes completely in front of the sun casting. Here s why a total solar eclipse occurs on a given spot on the planet only once every 375 years. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes completely in front of the sun and creates a shadow that darkens a portion of the earth.

They occur when the same eclipse changes from an annular to a total solar eclipse and or vice versa along the eclipse s path. In a solar eclipse the moon passes between earth and the sun and stops some or all of the sun s light from reaching earth. The moon takes about one month to fully orbit the earth. They occur roughly once every year or two somewhere on earth.

Such alignment coincides with a new moon indicating the moon is closest to the ecliptic plane in a total eclipse the disk of the sun is fully obscured by the moon. This occurs when the sun moon and earth are aligned. The millions of people who are expected to witness the astronomical event won t show up just because solar eclipses are exceedingly beautiful they re also exceedingly rare. But any given spot on our planet s surface gets darkened by the moon s shadow on average only once about every 400 years so in that sense totality is indeed rare cosmic coincidence.

There are three kinds of solar eclipses. They are also very rare. 21 will attract a huge audience and rightly so. Looked at another way total solar eclipses aren t rare.

A solar eclipse occurs when a portion of the earth is engulfed in a shadow cast by the moon which fully or partially blocks sunlight. So solar eclipses could happen once a month. They won t show up just because solar eclipses are extremely beautiful. In partial and annular eclipses only part.

21 2017 is an exceedingly rare event.