Important Takeaways:

• The “ring of fire” eclipse—also known as an annular solar eclipse—is a month away, and although Hawaii is the only U.S. state that will be within the partial path of viewing, parts of Chile and Argentina will see the entire eclipse, while other South American countries will also be in the partial or full path.
• An annular solar eclipse will occur in October, and it’s also called a “ring of fire” eclipse because it happens when the moon passes between the sun and Earth but does not completely obscure the sun, leaving the sun’s visible outer edge—also called the ring of fire, or annulus—around the moon.
• Like total solar eclipses, ring of fire eclipses only happen when there’s a new moon and the moon, the sun and Earth are in a straight—or nearly straight—line; but unlike total solar eclipses, annular eclipses occur when the moon is near its farthest point from Earth—called the apogee—which allows the ring of fire to be visible, according to NASA.
• Ring of fire eclipses go through phases, which can take over three hours to complete, but the actual ring of fire can last anywhere between a few seconds to over 12 minutes.
• The eclipse will happen on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

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