Part of the southern hemisphere witnessed an annular solar eclipse on Wednesday. The splendor of the “ring of fire” was perfectly visible in the semi-desert Chilean and Argentine Patagonia.
The southern tip of the continent and the (Chilean) Easter Island had the privilege of fully seeing the phenomenon, which began in the North Pacific and ended in the South Atlantic. But several South American countries and Pacific Islands were able to partially observe it.
“It was impressive, wonderful. Like a little twilight,” enthused Ninoska Huki, 55, from Easter Island.
Far from there, on the other side of the Andes mountain range, in Argentine Patagonia, in Puerto San Julian, a small seaside resort 2,100 km from Buenos Aires, a few hundred duly covered people braved the cold and wind to watch the moon. nibble the sun around 5:25 p.m. local time (10:25 p.m. in Switzerland), noted AFP.
“I’ve seen three total solar eclipses before, but this was my first ‘annular’. I came from [nord-est des États-Unis, ndlr] just for that. And it was spectacular,” said Susan Patkin, 66.
Orange ring
“A solar eclipse is the interposition of the Moon between the Sun and the Earth,” recalled Diego Hernandez, responsible for scientific dissemination at the Buenos Aires planetarium. But in the case of Wednesday, “the Moon will be a little further from the Earth than usual, something that happens about once a month.”
Also, “the Moon cannot completely cover the Sun”, hence an orange ring, “a sort of ring of light coming from the Sun”. Before and after this ring of fire, a “crescent sun” is visible, he added.
The eclipse began in the northern Pacific then from west to east, before “passing” through several islands and archipelagos, then crossing Chilean Patagonia, the Andes, Argentine Patagonia, to end in the Atlantic south.
If the eclipse phenomenon was to last more than three hours, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (Swiss time), according to NASA, the perfect annular eclipse in a restricted band only lasted a few minutes.
According to the French Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (IMCCE), Wednesday’s eclipse is the 18th annular solar eclipse of the 21st century and the second eclipse of 2024 after the total eclipse in April. The next partial solar eclipse will take place on March 29, 2025, visible mainly from western North America, Europe and northwest Africa.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
Related News :