A total

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

occurred at the Moon's

descending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Wednesday, December 4, 2002, with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 1.0244. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's

apparent diameter The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular separation (in units of angle) describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the '' visual ...

is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.9 days after

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

(on December 2, 2002, at 8:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The eclipse was visible from a narrow corridor in parts of

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the

's penumbra, including most of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in addition to parts of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. During the

sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

after the eclipse many observers in Australia saw numerous and unusual forms of a green flash. In some parts of

, it was the second total eclipse of the Sun within 18 months, following the solar eclipse of June 21, 2001.

Observations

The

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

sent a team to Australia, to study the gravity anomalies first recorded by Indian scientists during the total solar eclipse of October 24, 1995. The Chinese Academy of Sciences also studied it during previous total solar eclipses of March 9, 1997 in Mohe County and June 21, 2001 in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. With continuous observation for more than 10 years after that, China obtained the first observational evidence that the

gravity field In physics, a gravitational field or gravitational acceleration field is a vector field used to explain the influences that a body extends into the space around itself. A gravitational field is used to explain gravitational phenomena, such as ...

propagates at the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

Images

Gallery

Loki at the Eclipse (2729814719).jpg, Via eclipse glasses in

Ceduna, South Australia Ceduna ( ) is a town in South Australia located on the shores of Murat Bay on the coast, west of the Eyre Peninsula. It lies west of the junction of the Flinders Highway, South Australia, Flinders and Eyre Highways around 786 km northwest o ...

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an

eclipse season An eclipse season is a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Orbit of the Moon, Moon's orbital plane (orbital inclination, tilted five degrees to the ecliptic, Earth ...

, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2002

* A penumbral lunar eclipse on May 26. * An annular solar eclipse on June 10. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on June 24. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on November 20. * A total solar eclipse on December 4.

Metonic

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 22, 2006

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 24, 1995 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 29, 1993 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 10, 2011

Tritos

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 4, 1992 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 3, 2013

Solar Saros 142

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 22, 1984 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 14, 2020

Inex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 24, 1973 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 14, 2031

Triad

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 3, 1916 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 4, 2089

Solar eclipses of 2000–2003

Saros 142

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

Notes

References

Fred Espenak Fred Espenak (August 1, 1953 – June 1, 2025) was an American astrophysicist. He worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center and published extensively on eclipse predictions. Career Espenak became interested in astronomy when he was 7–8 year ...

and Jay Anderson. "
Total Solar Eclipse of 2002 December 4
'".

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, November 2004.
Google Map
Photos:

an

* ttp://www.krysstal.com/ec2002.html KryssTal - Eclipse from Botswana
Images from Australia by Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society
*

''. * ttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021206.html Zimbabwe Solar Eclipse APOD 12/6/2002, Corona from Zimbabwe-South Africa border
The Crown of the Sun
APOD 12/13/2002, Corona of total eclipse from Musina, South Africa
Shadow Cone of a Total Solar Eclipse
APOD 1/6/2003, totality from South Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Solar Eclipse Of December 4, 2002 2002 12 04 2002 in science 2002 12 04 December 2002 2002 in Angola 2002 in Zambia 2002 in Zimbabwe 2002 in Botswana 2002 in Mozambique 2002 in South Africa December 2002 in Australia