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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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Solar Eclipse over the UAE

Explanation: What's happening behind that camel? A partial eclipse of the Sun. About six and a half weeks ago, the Moon passed completely in front of the Sun as seen from a narrow band on the Earth . Despite (surely) many camel s being located in this narrow band , only one found itself stationed between this camera, the distant Moon , and the even more distant Sun . To create this impressive superposition , though, took a well-planned trip to the United Arab Emirates , careful alignments, and accurate timings on the day of the eclipse. Although the resulting featured image shows a partially eclipsed Sun rising, the Moon went on to appear completely engulfed by the Sun in an annular eclipse known as a ring of fire . Forward scattering of sunlight, dominated by quantum mechanical diffraction , gives the camel hair and rope fray an unusual glow. The next solar eclipse is also an annular eclipse and will occur this coming June .

News: Solar Orbiter Launched

Date February 10, 2020
Credit Image Credit & Copyright: Joshua Cripps
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.