... Credit: EUMETSAT Explanation: When the Moon's shadow reached out and touched the Earth last week, the result was a solar eclipse . Such an eclipse is total only for observers located along a narrow path corresponding to the ground track of the shadow's dark central portion or umbra . For this eclipse, racing along at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour, the Moon's umbra obligingly crossed over land along regions of Africa and Australia . ... Publications with keywords: solar eclipse . ...