For the first time since 1979, people in the continental United States will be able to see a total solar eclipse later this year, on Monday August 21. The sun is 400 times larger in diameter than Earth’s moon, but since the moon is 400 times closer than the sun, they appear to be the same size in the heavens.
I read on the Great American Eclipse website that the moon is actually moving away from Earth by about one inch a year. That means that in a distant epoch, humans will run out of total solar eclipses to view, and only see annular eclipses (a ring of sun around the moon).
IMPORTANT NOTE (especially to humans in positions of great power):
Let us not destroy Earth before then with thermonuclear war, or by continuing the burning of fossil fuels for the generation of energy.
