how they get the time line of the solar eclipse so accurate down to the minute

Question

Just baffles me with how vast space is, yet these rocket scientists and astronomers can predict something so unique with such accuracy

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

The solar eclipse is literally just the moon passing in front of the Sun. The moon revolves around the Earth at an extremely predictable rate that we know to a very high degree of precision. After that, it’s just a question of doing the math of when that highly predictable orbit will put the moon directly in front of the Sun. This happens every 1-3 years for the record, the eclipse is just usually over empty ocean because the surface of our planet is mostly empty ocean.