If the sun goes down and the moon comes up how does a solar eclipse occur??

Answer 1

Because they cross in the middle.

Answer 2

A Solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks the Sun from the Earth.

Answer 3

The Sun doesn't go down, and the Moon doesn't really come up - it's a matter of where they are relative to Earth, the Moon's orbit around Earth, where Earth is in its orbit around the Sun, and Earth's rotation relative to both the Sun and Moon.

The sun going down is a result of the side of the Earth where you are located rotating away from the sun - thus the appearance of it going down. The same applies to the moon rising.

As far as how a solar eclipse occurs, it is a wonderful coincidence of all three lining up at the same time - Sun, Moon, then Earth. The Moon blocks the Sun's rays from the Earth in a narrow path.

Here are some web sites with good links and animations of solar eclipses. The last link has LOTS of information about eclipses/

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/eclipses.html

http://www.digitalradiance.com/movies/solar_eclipse.mov

http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/

Answer 4

The sun and the moon can be up at the same time. Have you ever gone outside one afternoon and saw the moon over near the horizon? There is a phase of the moon called the "new moon" in which you don't see a moon at all during the night time. That means that the moon is on the sun-lit side of earth. Sometimes when the moon is out during the day, it passes in between the earth and the sun and that creates the solar eclipse. It just so happens to be an interesting coincidence that the viewable size of the moon from earth is the same as the viewable size of the sun from earth and the moons disc covers the sun entirely.

Answer 5

The moon nearly passes in front of the sun every month at new moon (when the sun basically shines on the moon's backside). It's orbit is not quite in the same plane as the Earth's orbit around the sun, so most of the time the moon does not actually pass across the sun's face. When it does, we get an eclipse.

Get your basket ball (Earth) and baseball (moon) and flashlight (sun) and make a model. You will visualise it then.

The remarkable thing about the eclipse is that by sheer coincidence, the sun is 408 times as wide as the moon and 408 times further away from us. That is why you get a perfect eclipse, because the sun and the moon have almost the same apparent size.

Answer 6

The sun doesn't move. The earth spins in place while rotating the sun. The earth pulls the moon along with it with its gravitational pull. The eclipse happens when moon is between the earth and sun during a new moon but can only be seen in certain parts of the earth since the sun is so big the moon can't obstruct it completely.

Answer 7

Where they passed in the middle.

Actually, the sun sort of goes around the middle of the galaxy. Actually, the earth sort of goes around the sun.
Actually, the moon sort of goes around the earth.
Actually, sometimes the moon passes between the earth and the sun (and actually, sometimes the earth passes between the moon and the sun and something similar happens)--its called an eclipse. Eclipses always happen but the shadow falling on the earth is the part we call and eclipse, which we often don't realize until we happen to be in that place where the shadow crosses.

Answer 8

Doesn't work that way. Solar Eclipses occur only on "new Moon" days. The Moon has to pass in front of the sun (in relation to earth) for the eclipse to happen

Answer 9

"Sun goes down" and "Moon rises" are just phrases that we say in everyday life. Since there are established rotations (moon around earth and earth around sun), a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in between the sun and earth.

A lunar eclipse, by the way, is when the earth moves between the sun and moon (someone I knew once believed that the sun moved between the earth and moon for a lunar eclipse ... which is quite scary).

Answer 10

When the earth and moon and the sun are in perfect alignment it will give the illusion of a solar eclipse

Answer 11

The sun doesn't always disappear at sun rise. Haven't you seen it in the sky during the day? Well, on days we can't see it, but it is up there (New moons, basically) the moon sometimes passes between the sun and the earth, casting a shadow on the earth. Only for a little bit though.