usatoday24
On July 16, 2186, the Moon will align perfectly between Earth and the Sun, creating an unprecedented eclipse. Unless Millionaire eccentric determined to rejuvenate Be successful, none of us will be here to see it. But our descendants will want to spend that day somewhere in Colombia, Venezuela or Guyana.
7 minutes and 29 seconds. The longest total solar eclipse in history will exceed in almost two seconds the duration of the record until now: the eclipse of June 15 of the year 743 AC, which reached a totality of 7 minutes and 27 seconds on the Indian Ocean, near the current Kenya and Somalia.
No eclipse will have lasted so much From before 4000 ACand none will do it until after 8000 AD, so we can be sure that it will be a really unique astronomical event. The total solar eclipse of longer duration in an interval of 12,000 years.
The moon will obscure South America. The historical solar eclipse of 7 minutes and 29 seconds will not occur on the mainland: the strip of totality will reach its largest duration over the Atlantic Ocean.
However, northern South America will also enjoy extraordinarily long totalities. Especially in Colombia (from Cali to Puerto Ayacucho), Venezuela (from the Orinoco to Imataca) and Guyana (throughout the northern half of the country, including Georgetown).
The show will not be limited to that narrow strip. Virtually all South America, including the entire Brazilian territory, can observe a partial eclipse of great magnitude. The eclipse will also be partially visible from Mexico to Paraguay, and west of Africa. In Spain, the Canary Islands will barely touch at sunset.
Why it will last so long. The reason for this extreme duration is a “perfect storm” in the positions of the three bodies. The Earth will be at its point farther from the sun (its aphelium), which will make the solar disk look slightly smaller.
The Moon, meanwhile, will be at its closest point to Earth (its perigee), so its apparent album will be larger. And finally, the eclipse trajectory will pass very close to Ecuador Earth. This combination maximizes the time that the shadow of the moon takes to sweep the surface of the earth.
How we are so sure. Eclipses’ prediction is one of the most successful feats of computational astronomy. The scientists feed their superorders with the current positions and speeds of the Earth and the Moon, and then use Newton’s Movement Laws to know what will happen within several centuries or even millennia.
These algorithms are actually models that integrate gravitational equations to project their positions in the future. And they do it with amazing precision, usually with a margin of error of less than one minute over hundreds of years.
Primo brother of a recent eclipse. The total solar eclipse of 2186 belongs to the same “lineage” as the great eclipse of North America of April 8, 2024, The Saros 139 cycle. A cycle of Saros is a period of approximately 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours, after which the Sol-Tierra-Luna geometry is repeated almost identically, producing a very similar eclipse but displaced about 120 degrees to the west.
The discussions among the eclipses enthusiasts already fantasize about how the hunting of this event will be in 2186. There is talk of flotles of cruises positioned in the Atlantic and flights in hypersonic airplanes to pursue the shadow and further extend the experience of totality.
Although we can only imagine it, it is a fascinating reminder of how science allows us to travel in time and be witnesses, at least on paper, of the wonders that the cosmos reserve for future generations.
Image | THAT
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings