Total solar eclipse? In Brazil, only in 2045 – 04/08/2024 – Science

A strip of Earth about 200 kilometers wide will be dark in broad daylight this Monday (8) and the temperature will drop. The culprit is a total solar eclipse, which can be observed in parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada. Brazil, this time, is out of the way and will have to wait until 2045 to see a phenomenon like this.

Despite this, in October last year, Brazilians had the chance to follow a solar eclipse, albeit of the annular type. Surfer Italo Nogueira, for example, took the opportunity to pose in front of the disk formed by the Moon to make a reference to the Olympic gold won in Tokyo in 2020.

In that type of eclipse, the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, but does not completely block the star, because it is further away from our planet and, as a result, smaller. As a result, a kind of ring is formed surrounding the natural satellite. Only in part of the North and Northeast could the event be fully observed. In other parts of the country, the view was partial.

This year, in March, another eclipse came. This penumbral lunar era, when the Earth is positioned between the Sun and the Moon and the satellite enters the penumbra. But this type of phenomenon does not cause major visible changes on the Moon, so the probability of it going unnoticed is enormous.

Those who were aware of the latter and still missed it will have a new opportunity on the 17th and 18th of September, when a partial lunar eclipse will be visible from the country, in which a shadow covers part of the satellite.

Now, a total lunar eclipse, in which the Moon enters the umbra, can only be admired from Brazilian territory on March 14, 2025. What draws attention to this type of eclipse is the fact that the satellite takes on an orange or reddish tone — and redder due to the concentration of dust and clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA.

Solar eclipses

Returning to solar eclipses, the closest one on Brazilians’ agenda is a partial one, on October 2nd. The best visibility will be in the south of the country. In the case of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the chance of following him will be lower.

Another annular solar eclipse, like the one seen last year in part of the country, will only be repeated here in February 2027. And, for a total solar eclipse, the wait will be even longer: October 2045.

With this prediction, fans of the phenomenon will be left to follow the total solar eclipse this coming Monday (8) from afar. The National Observatory, for example, will broadcast the event through its YouTube channel. NASA will also do it, but in English. Finally, the Disney+ streaming channel will also broadcast, starting at 3pm, a program called “Eclipse across America” ​​(something like “The eclipse across America”, in free translation).

In the United States, the band of darkness generated by the total solar eclipse should pass through an area occupied by 31.6 million people, according to NASA. As a comparison, in 2017, a phenomenon of the same type hit a strip, from Oregon to South Carolina, occupied by 12 million people.

During the event, researchers will take the opportunity to conduct scientific projects, supported by the American special agency. In them, the Sun and its influence on Earth will be objects of study.

Totality, when the Moon’s disk completely covers the Sun, is estimated to last just over four minutes in the Mexican state of Durango. In other regions, it should not exceed even a minute.

Even though it is short, the expectation is that there will be major delays and congestion in the country. Companies plan live events, and schools will cancel classes or release students early. Airlines scheduled flights to pass under the eclipse-darkened band.

A consultancy in Texas calculated the direct and indirect economic impact of the phenomenon at R$6 billion (R$30 billion).

“Eclipses have a special power. They make people feel a kind of awe for the beauty of our universe,” US space agency director Bill Nelson said recently.

All this frenzy may be repeated in Brazil, but only in 2045.