Both Argentina and Chile will experience a total solar eclipse on Tuesday, July 2, in a breathtaking natural event which is expected to last a total of four minutes and 33 seconds.

Only a narrow, 6,000-mile long band in the Pacific Ocean and in South America will experience totality as the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, completely blocking our star’s light for the brief period.

In one week, a total solar eclipse will pass over parts of Argentina and Chile. Solar eclipses happen when the Sun, the Moon and Earth line up just right, allowing the Moon to cast its shadow on Earth. ☀️🌗🌍 Check out the path of totality: https://t.co/J743ZTgl1jpic.twitter.com/etA1PTjb5c — NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) June 25, 2019

The eclipse will reportedly begin 4,000 km east-northeast of Wellington, New Zealand before eventually making landfall in Chile and crossing through into Argentina. It will likely stop just short of Uruguay.

A partial eclipse will be visible in Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, however.

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The event will begin in Chile at 4:39pm local time and last over four-and-a-half minutes, meaning it will be significantly longer than the most recent solar eclipse, which occurred in the US in August 2017 and lasted two minutes and 40 seconds.

This is the first total solar eclipse anywhere in the world since the "Great American Eclipse" that stunned millions across the United States on Aug. 21, 2017: https://t.co/6Q6GjoLuN8pic.twitter.com/ctMMymlsky — AccuWeather (@breakingweather) June 30, 2019

The Exploratorium museum in San Francisco will host a livestream of the view from the National Science Foundation's Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile, with the eclipse beginning at 12:23pm Pacific Time.

The European Southern Observatory will also livestream the eclipse from the La Silla Observatory near the Atacama Desert in Chile, beginning at 12:15 local time.

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