Today, October 14, the spectacle of the annular solar eclipse will capture millions of people on the American continent: it will cross the sky starting from the North-Western United States, then moving over Mexico, Central America and South America, finally exiting Brazil. The phenomenon will be due to the Moon, which will be between our star and the Earth, but at a certain distance from the latter: this means that the lunar disk will not be large enough to completely obscure the Sun, which will appear as a ring of fire’. Since the star will never be completely covered, observers will always need to wear adequate eye protection.
To have a total eclipse, however, the Moon must be close enough to our planet to completely cover the solar disk in the sky: a phenomenon of this type is expected for April 8, 2024, but unfortunately even in that case the eclipse it will only be visible from the Americas. During an annular eclipse like tomorrow’s, the sky remains quite bright, even with the Sun 90% covered. The ring of fire can only be admired by those who are on a narrow trajectory, but in the surrounding areas you will still be able to see a partial eclipse, which occurs when the Earth, Moon and Sun are not perfectly aligned.
During the eclipse you may also experience some changes due to the cooling of the ionosphere caused by the temporary darkness. The ionosphere forms the boundary between the Earth’s lower atmosphere and the vacuum of space and is made up of particles electrically charged by solar radiation. An eclipse, therefore, ‘turns off’ the mechanism that charges the particles of the ionosphere by imitating night-time conditions, so the numerous communication signals that pass through this area could be interrupted.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
