The “ring of fire” of the solar eclipse on December 26 delighted millions of viewers around the world in the Eastern Hemisphere. Even the astronauts on the International Space Station marveled at the great spectacle.
The eclipse, known as the annular solar eclipse, began in Saudi Arabia, with the moon passing in front of the sun, but without completely covering the face of the star, leaving a bright ring that gave it a “ring of fire” effect, standing up like colophon of 2019; the last solar eclipse of 2019, and indeed, the last solar eclipse of the decade.
Annular eclipses occur when the Moon is not close enough to Earth to completely obscure the Sun, leaving a thin ring of the solar disk visible. Although these kinds of eclipses occur every year or two, they are only visible from a narrow band of Earth at a time, and it may take decades for the same pattern to repeat itself. From places like Singapore, it will take about 40 years to see another like it again.
Those who have been able to see this astronomical phenomenon in all its splendor have been the inhabitants of southern India, Singapore, Malaysia and parts of Indonesia.
The eclipse began at dawn over the Arabian Peninsula, touching the countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman before crossing the Arabian Sea into India and Sri Lanka. From there, the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia, crossing Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, before ending at sunset over the US territory of Guam.
Of course, regions from southern Siberia to the Horn of Africa and northwest Australia to Japan and northeast Asia have been able to see different stages of the partial solar eclipse.
The networks are flooded with photos and videos
Users of social networks, especially Twitter, have shared their snapshots with the hashtags of #solareclipse and #ringofFire:
“This is what today’s annular solar eclipse looked like (when the Moon is in line between the Earth and the Sun) from @Space_Station,” wrote NASA astronaut Jessica Meir on Twitter from the International Space Station. “We saw the shadow of the Moon on the Earth below, just above the horizon (central gray area on the horizon).”
The Himawari 8 weather satellite of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency also captured dazzling video of the moon’s shadow moving across Earth.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, shared the video on Twitter.
The solar eclipse began at 9:23 pm EST December 25 as a partial solar eclipse, then reached its first “ring of fire” at 10:34 pm EST in Saudi Arabia. The 142 km “ring of fire” visibility route was later moved through Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Singapore, Borneo, the Philippines and the US territory of Guam.
When will the next solar eclipse be?
The solar eclipse on Thursday, December 26, was the last of three in 2019, the previous ones taking place on January 6 and July 2.
In the entire decade, since 2010 we have been able to see 24 solar eclipses.
The next solar eclipse will occur on June 21, 2020, and it will also be a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. That eclipse will be visible from parts of Africa, Southeast Europe and Asia, but there is no need to wait until June for the next eclipse.
On January 10, there will be a minor penumbral lunar eclipse, in which the moon passes through the outer region of Earth’s shadow. It will be visible to observers from Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
In 2020 we have to highlight one in particular that we should not miss: a total solar eclipse that will take place on December 14, 2020. South America and especially Chile will be the focus of this total solar eclipse.
Curiosity:
It is well known that the Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, and in about 600 million years, total solar eclipses will no longer take place. However, nowadays, annular eclipses are a bit more common than total solar eclipses and just as fantastic to look at.
