What Is a Solar Eclipse?

A solar eclipse happens when the moon blocks the sun, making it look like night time during the day. Imagine you're holding a flashlight (the sun) and your friend (the moon) walks in front of it, suddenly, the light gets dimmer, just like when you go from bright daylight to nighttime. That's what happens on Earth during a solar eclipse.

The moon is big enough to cover most of the sun’s light, so we see less sunlight hitting our eyes. This makes the sky look dark, even though it's still daytime! Sometimes you can even see stars or the earth's shadow on the moon during a total solar eclipse.