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Birthday · March 1, 2017

A Solar Eclipse with a Beaded Ring of Fire

March 1, 2017

In the time it took you to read this, the Earth moved another thousand miles through space. You are not standing still. You never have been.

A Solar Eclipse with a Beaded Ring of Fire

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APOD published March 1, 2017. Credit: Stephen Bedingfield. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

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A Solar Eclipse with a Beaded Ring of Fire

Original APOD · March 1, 2017

What kind of eclipse is this? On Sunday, visible in parts of Earth's southern hemisphere, the Moon blocked part of the Sun during a partial solar eclipse. In some locations, though, the effect was a rare type of partial eclipse called an annular eclipse. There, since the Moon is too far from the Earth to block the entire Sun, sunlight streamed around the edges of the Moon creating a "ring of fire". At some times, though, the effect was a rare type of annular eclipse. Then, an edge of the Moon nearly aligned with an edge of the Sun, allowing sunlight to stream through only low areas on the Moon. Called a "Baily's bead" or a "diamond ring", this doubly rare effect was captured Sunday in the feature photograph from Chubut, Argentina, in South America. This summer a total solar eclipse will swoop across North America. Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator

Image credit: Stephen Bedingfield

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