Monday Astronomy Picture Ponderings 5/9/2022
Eclipsing the Sun
Welcome back to the Monday Astronomy Picture Ponderings (MAPPs) series where every Monday I normally pick one of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) entries from the past seven days to focus on in some way.
On May 2nd, 2022, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a copyrighted image of the partial solar eclipse over Argentina two days before. The feature image above is a public domain image of a partial eclipse for our article today. So what is a solar eclipse? What about a partial one? Can solar eclipses happen on places other than Earth? Let’s find out!
What is a (partial) solar eclipse)?
Very briefly, a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, briefly blocking out the light from the Sun, totally or partially.
But, if the moon orbits the Earth once every 28 days, shouldn’t it pass between the Earth and the Sun pretty frequently? Shouldn’t we have a solar eclipse on a pretty frequent basis?
The moon has to line up perfectly with the Sun and the Earth for an eclipse to occur. Since…
