[ASTRONOMIA] Eclipsosaurus Rex

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/171...017-W3035w.jpg

image credit & copyright: Fred Espenak (MrEclipse.com)



we live in an era where total solar eclipses are possible because at times the apparent size of the Moon can just cover the disk of the Sun

but the Moon is slowly moving away from planet Earth

its distance is measured to increase about 3.8 centimeters per year due to tidal friction

so there will come a time, about 600 million years from now, when the Moon is far enough away that the lunar disk will be too small to ever completely cover the Sun

then, at best only annular eclipses, a ring of fire surrounding the silhouetted disk of the too small Moon, will be seen from the surface of our fair planet

of course the Moon was slightly closer and loomed a little larger 100 million years ago

so during the age of the dinosaurs there were more frequent total eclipses of the Sun

in front of the Tate Geological Museum at Casper College in Wyoming, this dinosaur statue posed with a modern total eclipse, though

an automated camera was placed under him to shoot his portrait during the Great American Eclipse of august 21 2017




































in apod.nasa.gov/apod