Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2020 June 15

                    A Ring of Fire Sunrise Solar Eclipse
         Video Credit: Colin Legg & Geoff Sims; Music: Peter Nanasi

   Explanation: What's rising above the horizon behind those clouds? It's
   the Sun. Most sunrises don't look like this, though, because most
   sunrises don't include the Moon. In the early morning of 2013 May 10,
   however, from Western Australia, the Moon was between the Earth and the
   rising Sun. At times, it would be hard for the uninformed to understand
   what was happening. In an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from the
   Earth to block the entire Sun, and at most leaves a ring of fire where
   sunlight pours out around every edge of the Moon. The featured
   time-lapse video also recorded the eclipse through the high refraction
   of the Earth's atmosphere just above the horizon, making the unusual
   rising Sun and Moon appear also flattened. As the video continues on,
   the Sun continues to rise, and the Sun and Moon begin to separate. This
   weekend, a new annular solar eclipse will occur, visible from central
   Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and a narrow band across Asia, with much
   of Earth's Eastern hemisphere being able to see a partial solar
   eclipse.

                       Tomorrow's picture: still crazy
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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