2044 eclipse still on schedule

  

On Monday, as you may have heard, there was a total solar eclipse in eastern Canada. The last one to hit Canada was in 1979, when I was turning two. The next one scheduled for Canada will be in August 2044, when I’m (hopefully) 67. That one will at least pass through the western provinces, for which I will say – it's about time. 

Politics aside, eclipses reveal a lot about the earth and our solar system. The fact we have them at all is an interesting coincidence of celestial size and distance. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it’s also 400 times closer to the earth than the sun. This allows for it to completely block out the sun about every 18 months somewhere on earth. 

But it won’t always be this way. Little did I know, the moon is gradually moving away from the sun at a rate of about four centimeters per year. In about 600 million years, it will be too far away to completely block the sun. That will be a huge disappointment for the humanoids around at that time. 

Eclipses also tell us something about how fast the earth is spinning. Based on historical information of when and where past eclipses have taken place, things don’t line up. That’s because the earth isn’t spinning at a consistent rate. It rarely does.  

Depending on the shape of the earth, which changes over time due to geological shifts and its distance from the sun, it will spin faster or slower. The lengths of days may change slightly each year, but over time, it can add up. You may have to adjust your clocks by a full millisecond over the course of your lifetime. 

For most geological and celestial matters, time is on our side. The last ice age to hit earth ended 12,000 years ago. For most of humanity’s flourishing, we’ve had an interglacial warming period. But this is also cyclical. Thanks to the earth’s wobble and some variation in the orbital route it takes around the sun – called the Milankovitch cycles – the earth warms and cools. 

Over the next few thousand years we’re expected to enter another cooling cycle, but for the time being climate change is disrupting all that. In geological time, human-induced climate change is a millisecond – kind of like a car crash, it’s a blip in time that could do much harm. 

Just like looking at the eclipse without the proper glasses. 

But hey, I’m sure the eclipse was wonderful. I look forward to seeing the next one in my backyard, with glasses on, in 2044.