Unbelievable: NASA knows about every eclipse to occur in next 1,000 years

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: It might sound unimaginable but it is a fact that NASA knows about every eclipse that will occur in the next 1000 years.

The US space agency has maintained a five millennium catalogue of all the solar and lunar eclipses that have happened or will occurfrom 1999 BC to the year AD 3000.

"NASA knows that on January 27, in the year 2837, a total solar eclipse will pass over southern Mexico. If the onlookers are lucky and it is a clear day, they will see a show that has captivated people on this planet for as long as we have been on Earth," a report on Vox.com website said.

The space agency even knows the exact time, down to the fraction of a second, that the eclipses will occur. 

NASA is able to make eclipse predictions because it has all of the variables: the orbit of the Earth around the sun, the orbit of the moon around the Earth and the daily rotation of the Earth, the report said.

NASA said that any given eclipse will repeat on an "eight years, 11 days, eight hours" cycle -- commonly known as the Saros cycle. Although, the eclipses repeat, they do not repeat in the exact same locations.

"Since the Saros period is not equal to a whole number of days, its biggest drawback is that subsequent eclipses are visible from different parts of the globe," NASA added. 

(With IANS inputs)