The True Meaning of the Great American Eclipse

Despite all the hype, the moon has nothing special planned for Aug. 21. It will continue doing what it’s done for more than 4 billion years—insensibly circling Earth, a dead rock at the end of a long gravitational tether. The sun has nothing special planned either. It will sit where it must sit and burn as it must burn to sustain the flock of planets and moons and asteroids and comets that have orbited it for so long. That’s how things go in the clockwork cosmos, and yet once in a while, there’s poetry in the machinery. Once in a while, the wheels click in synchrony and the indifferent universe offers up a rare spectacle. Just such a thing will happen on Aug. 21 as the moon’s orbit crosses in front of the sun at the precise spot to eclipse its face and appear to snuff its fires. A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on the face of Earth every 18 months. But it usually plays out over water—which covers 70% of the planet’s surface—or over unpopulated land. This month things will be different. The sky show that is being dubbed the Great American Eclipse will begin in the Pacific Northwest and make first landfall over Lincoln Beach, Ore., at 9:05 a.m. P.T. It will track southeast across the U.S., inking a narrow stripe of total darkness over 12 states before passing into the Atlantic near Charleston, S.C., at 2:48 p.m. E.T. Milloslav Druckmuller—Barcroft Media/Getty ImagesA total Solar Eclipse photographed in 2008. This comp...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized eclipse space space 2017 Source Type: news