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FACT: This is the most cosmically perfect time in history
By Clara Moskowitz
At least, in terms of observing cosmic phenomena, it is. We’re about to see a total solar eclipse over North America, which is a pretty rare phenomenon. But if we were living at a different point in cosmic history, it would be more than rare—it’d be impossible.
See, the fact that the moon is the perfect size to cover up the face of the sun in the sky is a total coincidence. It didn’t have to be that way, and in fact, it didn’t used to be that way.
The moon started off closer to Earth than it is now, so it would have looked bigger in the sky. It would have been so big that it wouldn’t just block the sun, it would also have covered up the solar corona—the glowing atmosphere around the sun that turns a total solar eclipse into a beautiful spectacle.
And the moon’s getting farther away all the time—by about 1.5 inches each year. This movement is a consequence of how the moon tugs on Earth to create the tides, which in turn drag Earth’s spin down minutely. To conserve angular momentum, the moon speeds up a teensy tiny amount, and thus moves away from us. In another 620 million years, the moon will be far enough away that its face will…
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