“火圈”日食标志着2019年终结

A few select countries had the opportunity to see the last solar eclipse of 2019.

少数几个国家有机会看到2019年的最后一次日食。

Ben Bolton

For those who live in Europe, Asia, Australia or Africa, it was a celestial treat!

对于那些生活在欧洲、亚洲、澳大利亚或非洲的人来说，这简直是天赐良机!

On Dec. 26, countries including Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore, the Philippines and some parts of Australia saw a "ring of fire" solar eclipse to wrap up the end of the year.

12月26日，包括沙特阿拉伯、印度、新加坡、菲律宾和澳大利亚部分地区在内的国家目睹了一场“火圈”日食，结束了今年的岁末。

Nearly everyone in the United States remembers the 2017 solar eclipse, but unlike that one, this eclipse left a sliver of the sun when hitting the point of totality. This type of eclipse is defined as an annular eclipse.

几乎所有美国人都记得2017年的日食，但与那次不同的是，这次日食在全食点留下了一小片太阳。这种日食被定义为日环食。

How it happens

它是如何发生的

So, what had to align for this to occur? The ring of fire is due to the distance between Earth and our moon. For this eclipse, the moon was farther from Earth, which in turn made it appear 3% smaller than the sun when viewed from Earth.

那么，为了让这一切发生，我们需要做些什么呢?火圈的出现是由于地球和月球之间的距离。这次日食中，月球离地球较远，从地球上看，月球比太阳小3%。

Although the two types of eclipses differ in appearance and longevity, they both share in the requirement of the moon and sun aligning.

虽然这两种日食在外观和寿命上有所不同，但它们都有一个共同的要求，那就是月亮和太阳必须对准。

This also marks the start of eclipse season spanning into January 2020, which ends with a penumbral lunar eclipse on Jan. 10. Unfortunately this type of an eclipse is hard to distinguish from a usual full moon, but it's still beautiful nonetheless.

这也标志着从2020年1月开始的月食季节，到1月10日的半影月食结束。不幸的是，这种类型的月食很难与通常的满月区分开来，但它仍然是美丽的。