As enthusiasm for 2017’s eclipse reaches fever pitch, take a few minutes away from the hype to understand how eclipses work on our own planet and beyond the edges of our solar system.
Dennis Overbye hosts this New York Times video explaining everything you need to know to fully appreciate the event.
An exercise in cosmic geometry. A reminder that we live on one sphere among many, all moving to the laws of Kepler, Newton and Einstein. The moon’s orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted, so the shadow of the new moon usually passes above or below us. About twice a year, the three bodies briefly align, and the moon’s long shadow cuts across our planet. The day dies and is reborn. The sun is replaced by an inky hole, feathered with the pale corona, a million degrees hotter than the sun itself. Staring up into the cone of blackness you can feel the cosmic gears grinding. Two minutes of beauty and terror.
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