ASTRONOMY | LIFE
The Majesty of a Total Solar Eclipse
Our solar system and the rare holidays of humility
There’s an undisputed magic to the total solar eclipse. But one of the aspects that makes the phenomenon most special is that it gives people an excuse to be in awe of the ordinary.
Of course, the total darkening of the sky during daylight hours isn’t exactly a banality. It’s rare, however, for people to sit down and be astonished by the astronomical uncertainty of our species’ very existence. It’s rare for masses to sit down and appreciate that we’re ants among giants — that we’re tiny beings pushed and pulled by cosmic forces on inconceivable scales. Netflix’s new show 3 Body Problem explores this idea poignantly.
The sun rises and sets on such a defined schedule that it’s easy to forget what a profound occurrence it is when it happens. Each new dawn and dusk gives way to shifting clouds of color and we expect no different. It’s only in the most aberrant moments that people appreciate normality. The grass is always greener and the sky is always bluer.
Eclipses are the spheres in the sky behaving as they always do — moving on a calendar that we can predict like clockwork. We know which types of eclipses will happen when, and in which parts of the world they’ll be…
