New Delhi: As people in parts of Southeast Asia plunge into darkness during a rare total solar eclipse on the morning of March 9, 2016, NASA explains about the phenomenon behind the celestial spectacle.


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As the moon passes precisely between the sun and Earth - a relatively rare occurrence that happens only about once a year because of the fact that the moon and the sun do not orbit in the exact same plane - it will block the sun’s bright face, revealing the tenuous and comparatively faint solar atmosphere, the corona, wrote NASA scientists in a blog post in its official website.


Watch NASA's animation videos below that to know more about the celestial event



“You notice something off about the sunlight as you reach totality,” said Sarah Jaeggli, a space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Your surroundings take on a twilight cast, even though it’s daytime and the sky is still blue.”



Totality will last for anywhere from one and a half to just over four minutes at each location, though more than three hours will pass between the time the westernmost location sees the eclipse begin and when the easternmost location sees the eclipse end, the scientists said.


Scientists warned that skygazers must use a solar filter or a projection system to view all the phases of the eclipse.