The solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes before the sun, casting a huge shadow on Earth.

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Dr Duif rules out a third explanation, too: that cooling of the Earth's crust due to the eclipse shadow causes the ground to tilt slightly, and thus distorts the results.

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Also, spacecraft stationed at L2 do not experience the swings in temperature that objects circling close to Earth sometimes undergo as they move in and out of shadow.

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Having wrong-footed the shadow chancellor last November, it became rapidly apparent on Budget day that George Osborne had moved heaven and earth to be able to do the same again.

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