What would happen if the sun suddenly shrunk during a lunar eclipse?

Answer 1

Nothing is covering the Moon when it is a half Moon. We can't see the other half because it is not lit up by the sun.

Half of the Moon is always lit by the Sun, the same as all the planets and satellites. At different times of the month, different amounts of that lighted surface are visible from Earth, depending on the positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun.

If the Moon is between the Sun and Earth, we see only the dark side. If the Moon has circled to the other side of the Earth, away from the Sun, we see the lit side. If the Moon is half way around the Earth, we see it half lit and half dark, a 'half Moon'.

All the phases of the Moon are caused by the amount of lighted Moon surface that is visible from Earth.

Answer 2

If the sun were to suddenly shrink during a lunar eclipse, it would not affect the eclipse itself. The moon would continue to move through the Earth's shadow, causing the eclipse to occur as normal. However, the change in the sun's size would likely have significant consequences for the Earth and its environment due to the altered gravitational forces and radiation levels.

Answer 3

From earth, the moon appears as a black sphere traversing the sun. When the moon is directly in front of the sun, you'll see a black moon and the sun's corona which isn't visible during a regular day.

Answer 4

(The question is: Why can it ?)

You may have noticed that things always look bigger when they're nearby, and

smaller when they're farther away.

The diameter of the sun is about 400 times the diameter of the moon. But the sun

is also about 400 times farther away from us than the moon is. The result is that in

our sky, the sun and moon look like they're roughly the same size.

Answer 5

If everything else stayed the same, no. But if the sun were also smaller, total eclipses could occur.

If the sun were the same size as now, but farther from Earth, total eclipses could occur.

If the moon were smaller, but nearer to Earth, total eclipses could occur.

Answer 6

The moon has a more strong reflection than the sun leading it to make a shadow therefore the moon's shadow blockades the sun from going to the earth only on rare ocations though! Good luck and keep on mooning! :)

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Another contributor added:

Well, OK, if that answer satisfies you, then take it and go, and use it in good health.

Otherwise, let me offer another way to think about the question:

Go outside on a clear day, hold your arm up in front of you, close your fist,

stick out your thumb, and cover the sun with the end of your thumb.

Now, how did that work, when your thumb is so much smaller ?

The answer is: Big things don't necessarily look bigger, and small things don't necessarily

look smaller. It also has an awful lot to do with how far away they are from you.

The sun at 93 million miles, the moon at 238 thousand miles, and your thumb at 3 feet,

all look to be roughly the same size.

Now ... what about that little twinkly star that looks like a tiny dot in the night sky,

but is actually a supergiant, a million times bigger than the sun . . .

+++

Or in a nutshell, it's the effect of Perspective!

Answer 7

The sun is farther away from Earth than the moon and with this distance in between them look the same size, so the moon can cover the sun.

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Answer # 11/2 :

Distance has everything to do with it.

Your thumb can totally eclipse the sun, being only

the length of your arm away from you.

Answer 8

By amazing chance the Sun's distance from the Earth is about 400 times the Moon's distance, and the Sun's diameter is about 400 times the Moon's diameter. Because these ratios are approximately the same, the sizes of the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be approximately the same

Answer 9

Sometimes they line up in a straight line.

Answer 10

An eclipse of the sun is a solar eclipse and it happens when the moon completely covers the sun. The moon moves between the Earth and sun and it casts a shadow over Earth.