- 4424 - SOLAR ECLIPSE SPEED - only the shadow knows ? - April's total solar eclipse will travel at speeds ranging from 10 million miles an hour, half the speed of the fastest supernova explosion ever detected, to as slow as 1,565 mph, about twice the speed of a supersonic aircraft.
------------------------- 4424 - SOLAR ECLIPSE SPEED - only the shadow knows ?
- How fast will April's total solar eclipse
travel? During the total solar eclipse
on April 8, the moon's shadow will slow down and then speed up again. When the moon's shadow races across Earth on
April 8 during the total solar eclipse, it will travel faster than the speed of
sound.
-
- It will sweep across Earth at more than
1,500 mileS per hour on April 8.
-
- However, exactly how fast it will move will
depend on where you are viewing it from.
A solar eclipse occurs on Earth when a new moon blocks at least part of
the sun, as seen from Earth. All solar eclipses project a large fuzzy shadow
onto Earth called the “penumbra”. From within it, observers see a partial solar
eclipse, watching the moon gradually block some of the sun before gradually
moving away.
-
- Only during a total solar eclipse, when the
moon blocks all of the sun, does a smaller, darker conical shadow called the
umbra project onto Earth. This is the path of totality, and from within it,
observers see partial phases on either side of a total solar eclipse.
-
- As millions of people across the United
States experienced a total eclipse as the umbra, or moon’s shadow passed over
them, only six people witnessed the umbra from space. Viewing the eclipse from
orbit the space station crossed the path of the eclipse three times as it
orbited above the continental United States at an altitude of 250 miles.
-
- The width of the umbra (the path of
totality) and the penumbra (the partial eclipse zone) depend on the moon's
distance from Earth during the eclipse. This also affects the speed at which
the shadow moves, as does the rotational speed of the moon and the Earth. The
moon is orbiting Earth from west to east, the same way Earth rotates, but the
moon moves more quickly.
-
- The penumbral and umbral shadows of the
moon are projected as a path because Earth rotates under the faster-moving
shadow of the moon. So, although the moon's shadow moves across Earth very
quickly during an eclipse, it's counteracted by the Earth's rotational speed.
-
- Although the moon's shadow would move even
more quickly across the planet if it weren't rotating, on April 8, that shadow
will still move exceptionally fast. However, it won't travel at a consistent
speed.
-
- The moon's shadow will travel slowest at
the point of greatest eclipse near the town of Nazas, Mexico, where the
duration is longest and also where the shadow speed is the lowest. As the shadow progresses across North
America, the shadow speed increases because the oblique angle of the shadow on
a curved Earth results in a higher ground speed.
-
- For example, at 11:37 UT on April 8, the
event will begin as an eclipsed sunrise in the Pacific Ocean, during which the
moon's shadow will be traveling at a whopping 10,439,792 mph. As it ends as an eclipsed sunset in the
Atlantic, it will be traveling at 5,535,176 mph. However, close to Nazas,
Mexico, the point of the greatest eclipse where the centers of the sun, moon,
and Earth are in perfect synergy (alignment), it will be moving at 1,565 mph.
-
- The shadow will slow down to that point
and speed up after, so as the moon's shadow enters the U.S. in Texas, it will
speed up slightly to 1,597 mph. It will then pick up the pace across the U.S.
and, as it leaves Newfoundland in Canada for the Atlantic, it will be moving at
4,727 mph.
-
-
April 7, 2023 SOLAR
ECLIPSE SPEED -
only the shadow knows ?
4423
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--------------------- --- Monday, April 8, 2024
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