Eclipses

Solar eclipses are a cosmic coincidence because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun but 400 times closer to Earth, allowing it to completely block sunlight.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Although the moon passes between the sun and Earth each month, its orbit is tilted by five degrees, preventing Earth from experiencing a solar eclipse each month.

Eclipse glasses protect the eyes from overexposure to the sun's ultraviolet, blue, and infrared light, as a person's instinct to look away from the sun is diminished when it's partly blocked.

Just as directly observing a solar eclipse without protective glasses can cause permanent eye damage, photographing an eclipse requires a specialized filter to prevent damaging your camera.

Blood moons only occur during total lunar eclipses, when the Earth blocks the sun, but its atmosphere lets redder parts of sunlight through to reflect off the lunar surface.

Every eclipse is preceded or followed by another eclipse, separated by about two weeks and alternating between solar and lunar types.

In 2025, the European Space Agency created the first artificial solar eclipse in space when one spacecraft cast a shadow onto another spacecraft to enable observations of the sun's outermost atmosphere.

By identifying patterns in the periodic movements of the sun, moon, and Earth, ancient civilizations realized that identical eclipses repeat about once every 6,585 days, known as the saros cycle.

While solar eclipses were considered ominous throughout history, multiple cultures explained the celestial event as the result of mythical creatures nearly consuming the sun.