How fast will next week’s annular solar eclipse be?

As announced in January by In 2023 there will be a total of four eclipses, two lunar and two solar. One of each has already occurred in the first half of the year, and the next ones will occur this month: one from the Sun, on the 14th, and one from the Moon, on the 28th.

Second Brazilian astronomical almanac, the first event will be an annular solar eclipse, also called the Ring of Fire. This phenomenon occurs when the Moon covers the center of the Sun, but leaves a circle of visible light around it.

The dynamics are similar to that of a total solar eclipse, in which the Moon aligns between the star and Earth, casting a shadow on the planet. However, in the case of annular eclipses, the Moon is farther from the Earth, which is why its apparent diameter is not exactly the same as the apparent diameter of the Sun.

But at what speed do these events occur? The answer is, it depends. The same eclipse can assume different speeds depending on the place from which it is observed.

“How fast the eclipse travels depends on the geometry – where on Earth the shadow is moving, as well as the distance from the Moon and its orbital speed,” eclipse calculator and cartographer Dan McGlaun told the website. Space.com. He is the creator of the website Eclipse 2024.org, which offers a tool that simulate the annular solar eclipse in every place on the globe.

When it first reaches the North Pacific Ocean, the Moon’s antumbral shadow (within which the Ring of Fire will be visible) will move at an impressive speed of 200,000 miles per hour, according to this other article. interactive eclipse map. When it leaves the planet 219 minutes later, in the Atlantic Ocean, the speed of the shadow will be 93,800 km/h. “The shadow moves faster and faster at the ends of the path, because at those locations the shadow’s axis is more tangential to the Earth’s surface,” McGlaun explains.

According to him, halfway through the eclipse – where the Ring of Fire will appear for 5 minutes and 17 seconds off the coast of Nicaragua – the relative speed of the eclipse will be only 2,000 km/h. “At the halfway point, the axis is essentially perpendicular to the surface. So even if the Moon itself doesn’t shrink, the intersection of the Earth and the Moon’s shadow does.”

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Source: Olhar Digital