Next Week’s Annular Solar Eclipse Will Create a ‘Ring of Fire’ in the Sky

Johnny Cash fans, get ready. In less than a week, a ring of fire will appear in the sky. Notably, in this case, it has nothing to do with love and everything to do with science.

The annual solar eclipse. Astronomy fans will be in for quite a treat on Oct. 2. That’s the day of the annual solar eclipse, a special type of eclipse where the Moon is near the part of its orbit farthest from the Earth and doesn’t completely cover the Sun. As a result, a ring of sunlight is visible around the Moon’s edges, hence the name. The circle of light is called the annulus.

Why do annual solar eclipses happen? The key to these special eclipses is the Moon’s orbit. As explained by the Planetary Society, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t perfectly circular, it’s elliptical. Consequently, this changes the distance between the Earth and the Moon throughout the year and also affects how big the Moon appears from Earth.

“Most of the time, the Moon appears large enough to cover the entire Sun during a total solar eclipse,” the Planetary Society stated. “But when the Moon is at its apogee—the point in its orbit farthest from Earth—it appears slightly smaller than the Sun, and cannot cover the Sun completely. When the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun during the Moon’s apogee, it creates an annular eclipse.”

Where will the eclipse be visible? Unfortunately for Americans, the annual solar eclipse won’t be visible in most of the U.S. The only exceptions are Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Minor Outlying Islands, all of which are expected to have a partial view of the show.

Don’t feel too bad, though. Very few people on the planet that will be able to watch the event in full. According to Time and Date, only 175,000 people will be able to see the entire annual eclipse, or less than 0.002% of the world’s population.

When it comes to people who will get to see partial view of the eclipse, the number increases to 245 million, which is 3.08% of the population. However, they won’t see the full ring of fire. Instead, some people will see a crescent mark on the Sun or only a small circular shadow on one of the sides. The best way to think about it is to imagine someone taking a small, or large, bite out of the Sun.

Eye protection. If you’re one of the few lucky people who get to view the eclipse live, don’t forget to wear specialized eye protection. As noted by NASA, the Sun is never completely blocked off during an annual solar eclipse, so it’s never safe to look directly at the Sun without eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer.

The space agency adds that viewers should never look directly at the Sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or any other optical device while wearing eclipse glasses because the concentrated solar rays will burn through the filter and cause serious eye injury.

Watching online. While most people on Earth won’t be able to see the ring of fire, we can live vicariously through livestreams. We’ll update this post with more information on how to follow along online closer to the event.

Images | NASA

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