Which Planet Has the Best Eclipse?

Solar eclipses don't just happen here on earth - moons of other planets also pass between those planets and the sun, resulting in various types of solar eclipses on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and even non-planets like Pluto, Eris and various asteroids. So, where are the best eclipses in the solar system? For that, we need a tier list.

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The material contained in this document is based upon work supported by a National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) grant or cooperative agreement. Any questions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this materials are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.

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Created by Henry Reich

[smartereveryday]

What a fantastic video. Pandora potato, Amalthea from Saturn is straight up eye of Sauron. May you all have a gap in the clouds on April 8th!

[unworthy.potato]

Great video, will have to rewatch it for when I travel to Saturn

[enteente]

Fun fact: the Saturn moons Janus and Epimetheus are coorbital. This means they have very similar orbits. Roughly every four years, the moons will get close to each other and perform a sort of gravitational dance, where they switch orbits. So Janus taking the orbit of Epimetheus and vice versa.

[theCodyReeder]

Petition to put up a structure, could be thin like foil because it just needs to block light, around Phobos to increase it apparent size and roundness so that it causes S tier total eclipses on the surface of mars.

[MrQuickLine]

This eclipses any other video on eclipses, in my opinion.

[intsven]

Regarding eclipses from Jupiter's moons on other moons: We have cool images of Io's shadow on Ganymede taken from earth.

[gamesta]

Really appreciate you taking the time to include a disclaimer about wearing eclipse glasses when viewing from Uranus. 5:52Safety first

[robb]

"Potato solar eclipse on Saturn" is a phrase I never knew I needed, until now.

[johnchessant]

So excited to see an S-tier eclipse on Monday! It's amazing what a bizarre coincidence it is that the relative sizes of the moon and the sun are basically the same

[jackyboi]

Last night on a talk show Neil Degrasse Tyson said "Earth has the best solar eclipses hands down"

[Devlinator]

7:55 I ran the numbers for Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto a few years ago. The apparent sizes vary wildly depending on where the moons are in their respective orbits, but the apparent diameter ranges for Io and Europa do overlap with the apparent diameter of the Sun, when observed from either Ganymede or Callisto. So perfectly aligned total solar eclipses - where the photosphere is blocked but not the corona - are possible, but I have no idea of how frequent they would be.

[deanlemckeevans]

Are there occasions where two solar eclipses happen simultaneously from the same viewpoint. So two objects cover the sun?

[jeremyc]

Another consideration for those S-tier eclipses on outer planets is that they're all caused by moons in very rapid orbits (typically about a day or less). They move incredibly rapidly across the sky, so any eclipses they cause (particularly with a size match to the sun close enough that much of the corona is visible) will be incredibly quick - on the order of several seconds (if even that much). They're also not round so you're a lot less likely to see effects such as Baily's Beads or a prominent diamond ring effect. Solar eclipses from the earth are truly unique.

[kansasmypie]

I was hoping Moon (from Earth) would be C tier or something and that there would be even cooler ones we didn't know about, but at the same time we're so lucky to get to see one of the top tier eclispes here on Earth!

[zeev]

0:46 wow, that 2d to 3d effect was very cool. also seeing your face at the end!

[grassfolk]

This is the most convincing thing I’ve seen to persuade me to try to see the eclipse

[ArtUniverse]

1:13
The corona is larger than you think. Earth's angular radius from the Moon is around 60 arc minutes, Sun's is the same as on Earth (15 arc minutes). This means that Earth obscures the inner 45 arc minutes of the corona (in the "worst case" scenario when both objects are perfectly lined up), but the corona actually extends out for many degrees.

[andrewadams]

I am LIVING for these HEAT / minutephysics eclipse videos, I can finally show people why the heck I love eclipses so much

[sntslilhlpr]

Those two pics of Saturn's rings at 5:08 are some of the best probe images ever. See that pale blue dot? Yep, that's us.

Bit of a step up from Carl Sagan's pale blue dot photo from Voyager. Edit: I recommend anyone who likes them to look them up on NASA's website to get the full detail. Youtube's video compression definitely makes them lose a lot of detail.

[qwerty]

I think a good followup would be looking at just moons with atmospheres as eclipse recipients. There are, what, 10 of them?