From what I’ve read, there quite a few solar eclipses in the world every few years, so why is this one in particular so scientifically interesting?
In: Planetary Science
Eclipses in general are pretty special. A moon has to be just the right distance to completely occlude a star while still leaving the corona visible like it does on Earth. Earth has what seems to be a pretty big moon for its size, which is probably the result of an early solar system collision, and our moon is slowly moving away from the planet, which means that eclipses like we see now have only been visible for some of the Earth’s history and will eventually not be as dramatic as they are now. It’s entirely possible that this is a rare enough cosmic coincidence that it would be a source of considerable interest and tourism if we ever meet other civilizations. And I’ll be able to watch it out of my bedroom window in a month if the weather cooperates.
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