 | Partial Solar Eclipse January 2011. Credit: Universitat de Barcelona | |
A partial solar eclipse will occur on August 11th. The eclipse will be visible from north Europe & northeast Asia.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and Sun and the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth. From the Earth, the Moon and the Sun have almost the same diameter. Moreover, due to the distance variations between the Moon and the Earth, Moon can be seen from the Earth bigger or smaller than the Sun. This gives as a result the three types of eclipses: total, partial or annular.
A partial eclipse occurs when the Moon is not completely aligned with the Earth and the Moon. Part of the Earth is inside the shadow caused by the Moon, The Moon's shadow actually has two parts: Penumbra, that is the faint outer shadow, and the Umbra, the dark inner shadow. When only the Moon's penumbral shadow strikes Earth, we see a partial eclipse of the Sun from that region. All solar eclipses begin as partial as the Moon shadow is moving up to its maximum.
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A part from this eclipses two partial eclipses have occurred in 2018, the first one on
13th July
visible from South Australia, and the second on
15th February
visible from Antartica and from the south of South America. The last total solar eclipse could be seen on
31 January 2018
from Asia, Australia, Pacific & the west of North America, the next one will occur on
2 July 2019
, visible from South Pacific Sud, Xile & Argentina.
Visibility