images

Total solar eclipse of august 21 2017 diagram

by

Nasa/Novapix

Reference

a-sol10-99008

Date

2017-06-29

On August 21, 2017, the Earth will cross the shadow of the moon, creating a total solar eclipse. For the first time in almost 40 years, the path of the moon's shadow passes through the continental United States. This visualization shows the Earth, moon, and sun at 17:05:40 UTC during the eclipse. Despite appearances, the geometry of the scene is correct. The moon's umbra cone is roughly 30 Earth diameters long, barely enough to reach the Earth, while the sun is almost 400 times farther away.