Monday, December 14, 2020

Solar Eclipse Seen From Space

This morning, people near the southern tip of South America experienced the only solar eclipse of 2020. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite caught images of the moon's shadow sweeping across the continent, blocking out the sun. 

People in areas where the outer part of the moon's shadow falls, called the penumbra, see a partial solar eclipse. For today's eclipse, that included much of South America as well as a small portion of Africa's southwest coast. If the sun were a little bit farther from the Earth, there would be what's called an annular solar eclipse, in which the moon appears to not block the entire sun and a ring of the sun is still visible. An annular solar eclipse was visible in parts of Africa and Asia in June. 

Read more about the eclipse and see another video from space at Mashable.


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