Longest 21st century solar eclipse envelops Asia in darkness

7月22日上午，中国和印度部分地区迎来了壮观的日全食。随着日食的开始，中印两国部分地区陷入黑暗之中。此次日全食是21世纪持续时间最长的一次，当地时间凌晨5点28分，印度首先迎来日全食。根据天文学家的预测，此次日全食持续时间将超过6分钟。太平洋地区是观测此次日全食的最佳地点，中国和印度将可以观察到完整的日全食过程。

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century will be visible in a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, according to the US space agency NASA, as it travels half the globe and passes through India and China.

The eclipse began at 5:28 am local time (2358 GMT) in India and will last up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds when it hits the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

Eclipses allow earth-bound scientists a rare glimpse at the sun's corona¹, the gases surrounding the sun.

Starting on India's west coast north of financial capital Mumbai, it took in the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi on the Ganges river.

Tens of thousands of people snaked through the narrow lanes of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act considered to lead to salvation² from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns³, men, women and children waded⁴ into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast⁵ sky.

"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our after-life," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India, who came to Varanasi with a group of about 100 people.

The eclipse was due to sweep through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China's financial hub Shanghai, before heading to the Pacific.

"In the 21st century this is the longest," said Harish Bhatt, dean at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

"This is indeed quite an important event for scientific experiments. Its long duration provides you an opportunity to make very complicated, complex experiments."