What is a solar eclipse?published at 09:37 Greenwich Mean Time
A solar eclipse is when the Moon passes in front of the Sun, blocking its light.
It’s a special cosmic event where the Sun, Moon and Earth all have to line up for it to happen.
Depending on how they line up, there are different types of eclipses that are visible from the Earth.
A partial eclipse – which will happen today – is when the Moon only covers part of the Sun.
A total eclipse is when the Sun is completely blocked by the Moon, causing the sky to go dark as there isn’t enough light from the Sun.
There’s also something called an annular eclipse, where the Moon is in front of the Sun, but is too far away from Earth to completely block it.
In an annular eclipse, it looks like there’s a dramatic ring of fire around the Moon – but this is just the part of the Sun that hasn’t been covered up.
