ECLIPSE GUM | ECLIPSES
A diamond ring that occurs when the Moon moves in between the Earth and the Sun.
An eclipse occurs when two astronomical bodies go in front of each other. The most famous one occurs when the Moon goes right in front of the Sun’s disk to cause a solar eclipse. Right before and after totality, for a few seconds a beautiful “diamond ring” appears when just a few rays are still getting through. Totality lasts for only a few minutes. During that time, the Sun’s faint halo and gas streams emanating from the surface become visible because the sun’s bright light is completely blocked. The sky gets dark during an eclipse and stars become visible also.
Image Credit: NASA/Rami Daud, Alcyon Technical Services
The LASCO C2 camera on the ESA/NASA SOHO observatory shows comet C/2020 X3 (SOHO) in the bottom left-hand corner. (right) A composite image of the total solar eclipse on Dec. 14, 2020, based on 65 frames taken by Andreas Möller (Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V.) in Piedras del Aguila, Argentina, and processed by Jay Pasachoff and Roman Vanur.
Credits: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Andreas Möller (Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V.)/processed by Jay Pasachoff and Roman Vanur/Joy Ng.
Eclipse image used with permission.
