I thought this had been asked here before but I am failing on searches and tire of the timeout trying new ones.
In short, when the moon eclipses the sun in a full eclipse it is just the right size to block out the disk of the sun.
Is this just some bizarre cosmic chance? Do orbital mechanics always make it work that way? Something else?
Sheer coincidence. Amazing, isn’t it?
Actually it’s not always just the right size. When it’s farther away it’s too small, and we get an annular eclipse. If it’s closer we get a total eclipse.
It’s not always, see Annular eclipse.
Ding ding ding ding ding!
No. The moon is moving away from the Earth. About 600 million years from now, it will have moved far enough away that there will no longer be total solar eclipses on Earth.
Yes. But it’s not static. It only appears that way at this particular point of time in our history.
Oh, damn, and I was looking forward to seeing an eclipse in 600002009. :mad:
Don’t fret. If there is anyone around the, there will be someone with a Total Eclipse of the Heart …
Shameless pre-Valentines Day plug.
Thanks all…knew I could count on you!
It isn’t necessarily a meaningless coincidence. Perhaps the spectacle of eclipses that varied between total and annular was so thought provoking to those animals around to see it start to happen (as the moon drifted further away) that it helped spur evolution in the direction of species like us who would create World Wide Webs to discuss it on.
Not likely, though, eh?
It’s also relevant to the relative tidal forces of the Sun and Moon, and it’s not entirely implausible that the monthly tidal cycle had something to do with evolution of life on Earth. That’d only get it into the same general vicinity, though, not necessarily a perfect match.
Or it could be this way because God intended it to be this way. <shrug>
For purposes of the question at hand, please define “God.”
>Or it could be this way because God intended it to be this way.
Je n’ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse’.
tbh though, I’m not religious but this about the strongest argument for a god there is. All the other arguments are meh. This one is actually proper impressive - you can look up and actually see it.
Since this is GQ and not GD, no, it couldn’t.
Two questions about the moon moving farther away from the earth:
Why?
Is the rate of the moon moving away such that lunar eclipses would have looked different (i.e., more moon) to the naked eye of a caveman?
The Moon’s gravity pulls up a tidal bulge on the Earth. Because this bulge is dragged around by the rotation of the Earth, it leads the Moon in its orbit somewhat. The small gravity offset caused by the bulge pulls on the Moon, speeding it up; the faster orbital velocity results in a longer orbital radius. Moon go bye-bye.
Probably not. It’s only receding at a couple centimeters a year.
Trilobites, on the other hand, probably experienced total and lengthy eclipses quite frequently. And then forgot all about them five seconds afterwards.
I’ve seen a few eclipses, and yes they are impressive. But they don’t cause me to redefine the word “argument.”