The old familiar sun was mostly blocked out of the sky on Thursday morning for a few lucky or intrepid humans from Siberia to Northern Canada. The cosmos will do that for you from time to time as our planet's endless wanderings, the sun, and moon, like billiard balls on a velvet space table, bring them into line. The outcome was an annular solar eclipse this morning.
The dark silhouette of the moon, which was too far away from Earth to totally hide the sun, was surrounded by a narrow ring of our home star's surface during the eclipse. It's known as the annular or "ring of fire" eclipse. Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere were indeed treated to a breathtaking spectacle just as the sun began to rise on Thursday morning.
LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 10: A partial solar eclipse is seen behind the Crimea and Indian Mutiny memorial outside Westminster Abbey on June 10, 2021, in London, England. Viewers in the UK will witness a partial solar eclipse this morning with around a fifth of the Sun's light blocked in London. In other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, this annular eclipse will be seen as a visible thin outer ring of the sun's disk that is not completely covered by the smaller dark disk of the moon, a so-called "ring of fire".
How People Enjoyed Ring Of Fire From Earth
The New York Times reported some astronomers were organized enough to book plane journeys into areas of maximum darkness. Some chased the experience of seeing the wonderful sight of the moment of cosmic geometry, another New York Times report said. The New York Times added Some dragged themselves and their children out of bed before morning. But one thing is for sure. Almost everyone wanted to experience the cosmic feeling and hoped that the ominous weather forecasts were incorrect.
When the moon passes between Earth and the Sun, it casts a shadow on our planet and blocks our view of the sun for a brief period. However, because the moon is too far away from Earth to completely block the sun during an annular solar eclipse, the sun's dazzling edge remains visible, Space.com reported.
While this may appear as a "ring of fire," to skywatchers on Earth's surface, the eclipse seemed very differently from space. Astronomers were able to witness the solar eclipse from their perspective. This is how it went.
Solar Eclipse From Space: See Satellite View of Moon Casting Its Shadow on Earth
Space.com said NASA's GOES-East satellite, an Earth-observing weather probe, captured the incident was captured from orbit by NASA's GOES-East satellite. The satellite witnessed the moon's shadow on Earth from its vantage point between the two giant bodies.
The moon's shadow moves steadily across the Earth's surface as it passes in front of the sun, blocking its rays, as seen in these observations.
The shadow was visible from Earth. Those who were lucky enough to have good weather and a clear enough sky were treated to a spectacular show. Even those who saw a partial eclipse, such as those in the United States, were enthralled by the spectacle. Because the moon only partially moved in front of our nearest star, it seemed to some as a "crescent sun."
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