Next Solar eclipse will occur on Aug. 21: What you need to know.
Solar eclipses are some of nature's most dramatic celestial performances. Solar eclipses occur when the Earth, moon and sun are aligned in the same plane and the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, partially or completely covering our closest star. The next total solar eclipse will occur on Aug. 21, 2017 — learn more on that below. There are four types of solar eclipses: total, annular, partial and hybrid. Here's what causes each type: Total solar eclipses These are a happy accident of nature. The sun's 864,000-mile (1.4 million kilometers) diameter is fully 400 times greater than that of Earth's moon, which measures just about 2,160 miles (nearly 3,500 km). But the moon also happens to be about 400 times closer to Earth than the sun (the ratio varies as both orbits are elliptical), and as a result, when the orbital planes intersect and the distances align favorably, the new moon can appear to completely blot out the disk of the sun. On the average a total ecl