WATCH: The Really Amazing Part of a Solar Eclipse

The total solar eclipse happening Monday across much of the United States is obviously a big deal.

They don’t happen very often. As we have been reporting the next one after Monday won’t happen for two decades in the year 2044.

And while it won’t be a total eclipse of the sun over San Diego we will still experience a partial eclipse.

And these rare events are indeed unique not only because a solar eclipse darkens at least some of the sky, but because what happens is pretty amazing when you realize how it happens.

The moon blots out the sun but everything has to happen just right.

You see, the moon orbits the Earth at a speed of 2,288 mph at least four times faster than the thousands of jetliners flying in the sky every day.

And the sun travels about 450,000 mph as it orbits the center of the Milky Way.

So when a solar eclipse happens, it’s happening fast in one sense and slowly in another if you’re witnessing it.

It can blow your mind just thinking about that. If the speeds and the paths of the moon and the sun vary by just a tiny amount, a solar eclipse doesn’t happen.

The creator of the universe obviously knew exactly what he was doing.