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Ammon News - A solar eclipse event will create a “ring of fire” in the skies over parts of South America on Wednesday, according to NASA.

Annular solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between Earth and the sun when the moon is near or at the farthest point in its orbit from Earth, so it can’t completely block the sun as it does during a total solar eclipse. Instead, the sun’s fiery light surrounds the moon’s shadow, creating the so-called ring of fire.

The path of October’s annular eclipse event will track over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and Antarctica, but those in the remote southeastern Pacific territory of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, and parts of Argentina and Chile should be able to see the ring of fire phenomenon if skies are clear.

Meanwhile, a crescent-shaped partial solar eclipse will be visible in Hawaii, American Samoa, Brazil, Fiji, French Polynesia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Pitcairn Islands, Kiribati, Tonga, Uruguay, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and many other locations. To see whether the partial eclipse will be visible in your area, check Time and Date’s website.

If you’re in the path of the partial or annular eclipse and plan to observe either celestial spectacle, make sure you have a pair of certified eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer. The sun’s harmful rays will never be completely out of view, and watching these events could damage your eyes if you look directly at the sun.

The eclipse path
The annular eclipse will begin at 12:50 p.m. ET and end at 4:39 p.m. ET, according to Time and Date.

The path will begin about 1,056 miles (1,700 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii, then move southwest, according to EarthSky. The eclipse is expected to peak, meaning the obscuring of the sun by the moon’s shadow will be at its greatest, at 2:45 p.m. ET over the ocean for just over 7 minutes.

But the eclipse will still put on a show for sky-gazers on land. The annular eclipse will first be visible overland in the remote island of Rapa Nui, famous for the hundreds of head-shaped statues found across the island, at 3:07 p.m. ET, and the ring of fire will have a duration of 6 minutes and 23 seconds, according to EarthSky.

CNN