Question

Suppose that instead of being inclined to Earth's orbit around the Sun, the Moonâs orbit was in the same plane as Earthâs orbit around the Sun. (Click "Show Moon with flat orbit" to see this situation.) In this hypothetical situation, approximately how many solar eclipses would occur each year?a) 10b) 11c) 12

Answer 1

c) 12

Step-by-step explanation:

A Solar eclipse occurs when The Sun, The Earth and The Moon comes in a straight line with the Moon being in between the Earth and the Sun. At this point the Moon appears to block the Sun and Moon's shadow falls on Earth. This would occur only on the day of the New Moon.

If the Moon's orbit was in the same plane as that of the Earth's orbit. Every new Moon, there would be a Solar Eclipse. The Lunar cycle is of 29.5 Days which means there will be one new Moon every month. So there will be 12 Solar Eclipses every year.

Currently, the orbit of the Moon is tilted at an angle of 5° thus we don't see that many Solar eclipses. Maximum of 5 solar eclipses can occur in an year.