2023-10-14 17:57:37
This Saturday (14), one of the most anticipated astronomical events of recent times takes place: a solar eclipse that will cover almost the entire American continent, including Brazil – which has not seen one in almost three decades.
This, then, is even more incredible: when it passes between the Earth and the Sun, the Moon will only cover the center of the star, forming a circle of visible light around it – the so-called “ring of fire”. This happens because it is further from Earth (close to its apogee, which is the farthest point from the planet), making its apparent circumference smaller than that of the Sun.
See the formation of the “Ring of Fire” in the sky over the Brazilian Northeast, live, with Olhar Digital. Credit: luchschenF – Shutterstock
Although only a few cities in the North and Northeast of Brazil will be able to see the complete phenomenon, all regions will witness at least part of it (that is, a partial eclipse).
What does it mean to say that the Sun is calm?
It is common for protagonists of big shows to be nervous on the day of the performance. This is not the case with Sol, the main character of this afternoon’s show.
Understand:
The Sun’s magnetic fields are in constant activity; When high concentrations of internal magnetic energy occur, dark spots appear on the star; These sunspots can explode as a result of the internal pressure of the magnetic fields becoming entangled; When this happens, the Sun fires jets of plasma (solar wind) into space; These jets are also called coronal mass ejection (CME); If CMEs are launched towards Earth, they can reach the planet’s atmosphere and react with the magnetosphere; This causes geomagnetic storms; Depending on the power, these storms can cause everything from the formation of auroras to more serious effects, such as interruptions in communication systems or even knocking satellites out of orbit; Solar activity oscillates in cycles of around 11 years; Close to the peak of each cycle (Solar Maximum), the Sun becomes more “angry”; This means that eruptions appear in greater numbers and are more violent; The Solar Maximum of the current cycle was predicted for 2025, but could arrive this year; This is because solar activity has been increasingly intense than expected.
However, exactly on the day of the eclipse, all this turbulence, which has been very common to observe, came to a respite.
Vision produced by combining images captured by the Solar Orbiter probe and the SOHO telescope shows a giant eruption from the Sun. Credit: Solar Orbiter Team / EUI, SOHO / LASCO, ESA and NASA
Solar activity on the day of the eclipse
According to the website Earthsky.orgspecialized in astronomical observations, no major activity took place on the Sun on Friday (13), and the star remains at a low level of excitement, with sporadic occurrences of class C explosions (considered weak).
According to an internationally established classification, solar flares X are the strongest type, within a scale distributed between categories A, B, C, M and X (from the weakest to the most powerful of them).
On the eve of the eclipse, only six flares were seen, all grade C. The largest was a C9.9 (nearly M) flare, triggered by sunspot AR3460 in the southwest quadrant.
Therefore, the forecast for this Saturday is a 95% chance for C explosions, 25% for M explosions and a 1% chance for X explosions. In other words: no stress on the Sun on this special day!
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