It’s Time to Revisit the Solar Eclipse
Did you observe the total solar eclipse that moved across North America on April 8, 2024? Photo by Rick Meyers on Unsplash A total eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The regions with the umbra as you can see in the image below, are where totality could be observed. Image from Time and Date This time, totality happened along the stretch of Mexico, Canada and the US. These happen occasionally because the Moon does not orbit on the same plane that the Earth orbits the sun. Image from City of Port Colborne Let’s focus on some specific parts of the total eclipse. First, we have Bailey’s Beads! This is essentially the moon’s bumpy terrain creates gaps where sunlight is able to pass through only seconds before totality of the eclipse occurs. Image from NASA Science Now, let’s look at the different structures that become visible. The white glow that is evident in all the images you may have seen is the Sun’s corona, which
