There is a lot of talk in these days of theTotal solar eclipse of August 2, 2027a real celestial show whose totality will have a maximum duration of well 6 minutes and 23 seconds (which will be beaten only in the year 2114) due to the fact that the moon will be very close to the Perigeo and the land close to the infelium. A truly high durationtaking into account that the maximum possible is 7 minutes and 32 seconds, and the “great American eclipse” of 8 April 2024 – considered considerably long – lasted 4 minutes and 28 seconds. The moon will completely cover the sun in a band that will cover North Africa, Southern Spain and the Arabic peninsula, creating a twilight along the whole horizon That will make the darkness “fall” in broad daylight making the stars visible even visible. The phenomenon can also be observed from Italy, but only as partial eclipse.
How long it will last and where the eclipse of 2 August 2027 will be seen
Many are talking about the 2027 eclipse as the longest of the 21st century, but technically it is not true. The total eclipse of the 22 July 2009 reached 6 minutes and 39 seconds of totality, but in the Pacific Ocean; The maximum duration in an inhabited territory took place on the small island of Akusekijimain the archipelago of the Tokara Islands in Japan, which has just about sixty inhabitants. So technically the eclipse of 2 August 2027 will not be the longest of the century, but the longest visible in easily accessible places on the mainland and in any case the longest until 2114. They are Ben 89 million People who reside in the totality band of the eclipse.
How the eclipse of sun will be visible from Italy
In Italy the eclipse will be partialthat is, the lunar disc will not completely cover that of the sun. The coverage percentages will go from 55% in the Triveneto up to 99.8% – So almost total – in Lampedusa.
Technically you can observe the totality without defeating from the Italian territory, as long as you find a way to go around 20 km off of the southern coast of Lampedusa, just before the border of international waters.
What the duration of an eclipse depends on and why that of 2027 will be so long
The factors on which the duration of a solar eclipse depends are three:
- The distance of the moon from the earth: The more our satellite is close to us, the bigger to appear, the more it will be the time during which it will completely cover the sun disk.
- The distance of the earth from the sun: The more far from our star we are, the more small the sun will appear, thus giving way to the lunar disco to cover it for longer.
- The distance of the totality from the Earth’s equator: The lower this distance, the more the tangential speed of the terrestrial rotation is high and therefore the speed of movement of the lunar shadow – which proceeds in the same verse of the terrestrial rotation, from west to east – will be lower, making the totality longer.
So, an eclipse is longer when the moon is close to the earth, the earth is far from the sun and the shadow of the moon falls near the equator. The eclipse of August 2, 2027 will be particularly favorable from this point of view because:
- The moon will only be a couple of hours from perigee (the point of his orbit closest to the earth);
- The earth will be close toaphelion (the point of his orbit farthest from the sun), which will be reached less than a month earlier, on July 4th;
- The totality takes place at low latitudes (the maximum are the 36 ° N of Gibraltar).
