'A total eclipse is a dance with three partners: the moon, the sun and Earth. It can only happen when there is an exquisite alignment of the Moon and the Sun in our sky,' said Richard Vondrak, a lunar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
As per the reports, during solar eclipse, the moon completely hides the face of the Sun for a few minutes, offering a rare opportunity to glimpse the pearly white halo of the solar corona, or faint outer atmosphere. This requires nearly perfect alignment of the moon and the sun, and the apparent size of the moon in the sky must match the apparent size of the sun.
A total solar eclipse occurs about every 18 months somewhere on Earth, although at any particular location and it happens much less often.
The solar eclipse is about to occur on August 21, 2017 in 14 states across the continental United States and many people are looking forward to the event.
This rare eclipse will be the first in 99 years, when the Earth will cross the shadow of the moon, creating a total solar eclipse.
Watch the video to know more about it:
