Europe to see total solar eclipse on Aug. 12
Day will briefly turn into night across a swathe of northern Spain on Aug. 12, when the moon will completely cover the sun during a rare total solar eclipse. The eclipse is the first visible in mainland Europe since 2006.
Eclipses happen when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth, casting a narrow band of shadow across our planet.
It creates a strange twilight during which temperatures drop, shadows appear at strange angles, and some animals go to sleep.
These odd phenomena convinced ancient cultures that eclipses were signs of the apocalypse—or messages from the gods.
However it is really the result of a “cosmic coincidence,” according to Nasa. “Even though the sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, it is also about 400 times farther away,” the US space agency says.
This means that for people standing in the right spot, the moon totally covers the sun—revealing its outer atmosphere called the corona.
On Aug. 12, a remote region of northern Russia will be the first to see the total eclipse.
The “path of totality,” as it is known, will then cross over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and the northeastern tip of Portugal.
Under two minutes
In Spain, it will roughly move from the northern city of Oviedo to the island of Mallorca.
The eclipse will cross over areas that have been hit by devastating fires in Spain, which scientists say were made more likely by human-driven climate change.
For observers in Spain, the total eclipse will last under two minutes just before sunset.
The northern city of Burgos, for example, will be plunged into darkness for exactly one minute and 48 seconds.
It will last slightly longer in parts of Russia and Greenland, though still under two-and-a-half minutes.
However, partial eclipses—which occur as the moon starts and finishes crossing the sun—will last around one hour and 45 minutes.
Partial eclipses will also be visible in most of Europe, Canada, the northern United States, and northwest Africa.
One or two solar eclipses occur roughly every year. However the small band of totality means that the same area may wait 400 years before seeing another one.
