Solar lunar year days difference

Answer 1

Solar eclipses are when the moon travels in between the sun and the earth, creating a circular shadow on the Earth's surface, temporarily. (Don't stare at the moon during solar eclipses!)

Lunar eclipses are when the earth gets in between the moon and the sun, creating a shadow over the moon, temporarily.

Answer 2

Solar eclipse is when the moon is in between the earth and the sun

sun:::::moon:::::earth

Lunar eclipse is when earth is in the between moon and sun, which is also when moon is behind the earth.

sun:::::earth:::::moon

Answer 3

A solar day is 24 hours, which is the time it takes the Earth to spin on its axis around the sun and come back to its starting point. The difference in a lunar day is that the moon revolves around the Earth in the same direction the Earth rotates in is axis. This makes a lunar day 24 hours and 50 minutes.

Answer 4

A solar eclipse is when the new moon passes right in front of the sun - blocking out the sun's light. A lunar eclipse is when the full moon passes through the Earth's shadow taking on a reddish color

Answer 5

Imagine that you dug a hole and planted a pole pointing straight up. At precisely noon, the shadow of the pole would point due north

(or due south, depending on your latitude).

That "noon" is the "local apparent solar time", as shown by a sundial. It's when the Sun is highest in the sky.

Noon on a clock would probably be a little different. Clocks use "mean solar time".

It takes the Earth about 23 hours and 56 minutes to rotate one time. But, after that time, the shadow of the pole would not be pointing due north/south. It would be at an angle. During that 23 hours and 56 minutes, the Earth has traveled far enough in its orbit so that it takes another 4 minutes to rotate enough to make the pole's shadow point north/south.

If you could do this with a star instead of with the Sun, it would take 23 hours and 56 minutes. The "sidereal day" is precisely one rotation of the Earth, with reference to the fixed stars. But the "solar day" is referenced to the Sun and so the solar day is 24 hours.

Actually, it's the "mean solar day" that's exactly 24 hours. The "mean solar day" averages out the natural variations in the length of the solar day during a year.

Also, this answer is about the planet Earth. On different planets you get other

time differences, of course.

Answer 6

For the planet Earth, the difference is about 4 minutes and a few seconds; the sidereal day is shorter by that amount.

The reason is that one sidereal day is the time that it takes the Earth to rotate 360 degrees on its axis. But in that time, the Earth has continued to move along in its orbit around the Sun. So in order to get back to the point where the Sun is in the same position in the sky, the Earth has to spin for about another four minutes. That's a solar (or Sun referenced) day.

Interestingly, on the planet Venus it is the solar day that's shorter. That's because of the "retrograde rotation" of Venus.

Answer 7

A solar year is the length of time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth. A lunar year is based on 12 cycles of the moon phase, or 12 lunar months.

Answer 8

a lunar eclipse happens at night, and a solar eclipse happens in the morning

Answer 9

A lunar eclipse is when the moon is darkened to observers from Earth. A solar eclipse is when the moon passes the sun.

Answer 10

A lunar eclipse is when the earth's shadow passes over the moon. A solar eclipse is when the earth's shadow passes over the sun. Lunar is at night, solar is during the day.