What moon phase can a solar eclipse occur in?
Question:
Answer:
New moon -- and ONLY a new moon.
The previous answer is correct about the mechanism, but if you think about the spatial relationship of the Sun, Moon, and Earth during a solar eclipse, you'll realize the moon phase MUST be "new."
As a solar eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, it has to be a new moon.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun. Therefore, the moon has to be new.
new moon.
Lets put our thinking cap on and use a little common sense. There is only 1 phase. I know you can do it.
The answer lies in what a solar eclipse is. It is what happens when the moon gets between the sun and the earth
Obviously, when the moon gets between the sun and the earth, that's when you have a solar eclipse.
Now, just BEFORE it got in front of the sun, where must it have been? Well, from our perspective, it must have been very near the sun! Wow!
Now if the Moon and the Sun are very near each other (apparently) in the sky, and we know (don't we?) that the sun is MUCH farther away from us than the Moon, THEN we can reasonably assume that the side of the Moon that we can't see is getting most of the Sun's light.
Now if the side of the Moon we can't see is illuminated, then the side we DO see has to be dark, right!? And if the Moon looks dark, then it's called a "New" Moon. So there's your answer.
Also remember that since the Sun is like a billion times farther away from us than the Moon is, we (the Earth) and the Moon are in just about the same place as far as the Sun is concerned. That means that when the Moon moves a few degrees in the sky (that means a few degrees in relation to us, on Earth), it's moving only a tiny fraction of a degree when viewed from the Sun. So the Sun's light falls in almost exactly the same way on the Moon, and our view of the Moon has barely changed, so the Moon looks "new" (dark) the whole time. It doesn't change suddenly.
Anyway, this is all pretty obvious.
New moon
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