Our moon covers the sun perfectly in a total solar eclipse, which can be seen in a path 115 miles wide across the U.S. today. In the shadow of the moon (that is, from a position within that path) all you can see (through the proper filter of course) is the corona of the sun.
Doesn't it seem unlikely that our little moon would ever perfectly cover the huge sun which is 93,000,000 miles away? Yes it does, what a coincidence.
Here's the explanation. The sun is about 400x bigger than our small moon--but it's also about 400x further away. From our point of view on earth's surface, the moon matches the size and shape of the sun. A total eclipse isn't visible in any other place in our solar system, and it doesn't matter because there are no observers to see it.
Keys to understanding space and light have been discovered because scientists on earth were able to observe total eclipses (discoveries explained here).
"So the best place to view total solar eclipses in our solar system is just where there are observers to see them. Let that sink in a minute."
"The universe seems to be designed not just for life but also for discovery."
from The Stream
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