Solar eclipse

• A rare celestial event, annular solar eclipse popularly called as ring of fire eclipse was visible on June 21, 2020.

Key highlights:

• An eclipse happens when the moon while orbiting the Earth, comes in between the sun and the Earth, due to which the moon blocks the sun’s light from reaching the Earth, causing an eclipse of the sun or a solar eclipse.

• There are three types of eclipses.

• Total solar eclipse happens when the sun, moon and Earth are in a direct line. The dark silhouette of the Moon completely covers the intense bright light of the Sun. Only the much fainter solar corona is visible during a total eclipse which is known as a Totality.

• Partial solar eclipse happens when the shadow of the moon appears on a small part of the sun.

• Annular solar eclipse, which happens when the moon is farthest from the Earth, which is why it seems smaller. In this type of an eclipse, the moon does not block the sun completely, but looks like a “dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk” forming a “ring of fire”.