Solar eclipse on the 14th will be seen from Brazil – 10/10/2023 – Science

Next Saturday (14), Brazilians will be able to watch one of the most impactful astronomical phenomena that do not require large equipment to observe it: the solar eclipse, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, transforming day into night in some regions of the planet.

Of the three types of solar eclipses, this week’s will be the annular one, when it is possible to observe a ring around the Moon, known as the ring of fire. The last time this event could be observed from Brazil It was on November 3, 1994, almost 29 years ago, when the southern region of the country saw totality, that is, the ring of fire was perfect in the sky.

This time, the privileged will be residents of the North and Northeast. Those in other regions, such as São Paulo, will still see the eclipse, but only partially, depending on the distance from the point where the Moon’s shadow will completely cover the passage.

“São Paulo is outside the range of totality of the eclipse, that is, when the Sun is completely covered by the lunar disk. In this case, the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun and the eclipse is known as an annular eclipse, precisely because the Moon will let a ring of light pass through, the so-called ring of fire. So, in São Paulo there will be a partial eclipse, that is, around 40% of the solar disk will be shadowed by the Moon”, explains Filipe Monteiro, astronomer at the National Observatory , a research unit linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

According to Monteiro, the annular eclipse will begin to be seen in full in Amazonas at around 12:05 pm, moving on to Pará, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Pernambuco, until around 5:50 pm.

Despite taking years to occur, eclipses are not such a rare phenomenon, as explained by astronomer Josina Nascimento, also from the National Observatory. Typically, the phenomenon occurs once or twice a year. “We have the feeling that it is a rare phenomenon, because the eclipse is only visible to those in the range of totality or annularity. But in a much larger range of Earth, the eclipse is visible in partial form”, she explains.

The last annular eclipse of the Sun, for example, occurred in June 2021, but was not visible in Brazil. Nascimento explains that, as the Moon’s orbit plane is tilted five degrees in relation to Earth’s, this configuration does not happen during the New Moon. “The size of the Moon that we see here from Earth, which we call its apparent diameter, is, on many days, equal to or even greater than the apparent diameter of the Sun, that is, the size that we see the Sun from here on Earth,” he says .

Anyone who misses the chance to observe the phenomenon on Saturday will only have another opportunity on October 2nd of next year, when there will be another annular eclipse, but only for those in the South and Southeast regions. And even then, it will be partial, with visibility of around 15%.

And after this, only on February 6, 2027, when São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro residents will have a view of around 90% of the annular eclipse.

In addition to the solar eclipse, there is the lunar eclipse, when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, covering our satellite with its shadow. In these cases, the eclipse can also be total or partial. And just like the solar, it occurs periodically.

The next lunar eclipse visible in Brazil will be on the 28th, when the Earth will partially block sunlight on the Moon, causing a penumbral eclipse.