June 21 is the longest day of the year in the North hemisphere, when people around the world is witness a celestial event known as the ‘Ring of Fire’ solar eclipse or an annular solar eclipse.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
The eclipse occurs when the moon while orbiting the Earth, comes in between the sun and the Earth, due to which the moon blocks the sun’s light from reaching the Earth, causing an eclipse of the sun or a solar eclipse.
Total solar eclipse happens when the sun, moon and Earth are in a direct line. The dark silhouette of the Moon completely covers the intense bright light of the Sun. Only the much fainter solar corona is visible during a total eclipse which is known as a Totality.
Partial solar eclipse happens when the shadow of the moon appears on a small part of the sun.
Annular solar eclipse happens when the moon is farthest from the Earth, which is why it seems smaller. In this type of an eclipse, the moon does not block the sun completely, but looks like a “dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk” forming a “ring of fire”.
When the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are aligned in a straight line or an almost straight configuration, such that the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth blocking the rays of Sun from directly reaching the Earth, we witness a solar eclipse. Based on the alignment, there are three kinds of solar eclipses — total, partial, and annular.
