• Question: why does the solar eclipse only happen a every so years ?

    Asked by anon-181986 to Alexandra on 22 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Alexandra Hogan

      Alexandra Hogan answered on 22 Jun 2018:

      A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and when the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun. This doesn’t occur too often because for this to happen, the Sun and Moon both need to be in alignment. However, the Moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted at a slightly different orbit to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Also, the Moon’s orbit is elliptical (so, it is at different distances away from Earth depending on which part of its orbit is it at), so sometimes it’s too far away from Earth to block our view of the Sun.

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