Will we ever stop having solar eclipses ?
How long will Earth continue to have total solar eclipses?
Eclipses occur because the Moon and the Sun are coincidentally the same size in our sky, but will that always be the case? The observed size of an object in the sky depends on its actual diameter and its distance from us.
And these can change. The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth by about 4 meters per century. Over time the Moon will appear smaller in the sky, and it won’t be able to cover the full disk of the Sun. While we can measure the current rate of the Moon’s movement away from Earth, we are less certain of how this rate may change with time. A lesser and more uncertain effect comes from the Sun which will continue to brighten slowly, as it has throughout its history.
With this brightening, the actual diameter of the Sun may slightly increase, and it will appear larger in our sky. A more distant Moon and a larger Sun will eventually result in an end to total eclipses on Earth.
Phedias Hadjicharalambous. Cyprus Astronomy Organisation
