Roughly every six months, there are periods where the Earth, moon, and sun align perfectly in space and then begin casting gargantuan shadows over each other. These periods are called eclipse seasons.
Next month will kick off the year’s first with a solar eclipse, when the sun will cast the moon’s shadow upon Earth’s far Southern Hemisphere. But because this moon will be a micromoon—and will look tiny—it will trigger an annular solar eclipse, where a “ring of fire” flares up around the moon.
