We won't have total solar eclipses forever, so you'd better make this one count
We live in a special time, at least when it comes to space.
On Monday, a total solar eclipse will pass over a 70-mile-wide swath of the United States, stretching from Oregon to South Carolina.
But don't take it for granted. We won't always have the chance to experience total solar eclipses from Earth.
According to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, eventually, we won't be able to see these kinds of total eclipses from Earth at all.
In about 500 million to 1 billion years, the moon will be too far from our planet to totally blot out our closest star in the sky.
"There will be a day where the moon will never in its orbit be large enough to completely cover the sun," Tyson said in a new video.
Ever since its formation billions of years ago, the moon has been progressively getting farther and farther from Earth in its orbit.
In fact, according to Tyson, the moon was about 20 times larger in our sky when it first formed by comparison to its apparent size now.
Each year, the moon moves about 1.5 inches, 3.8 centimeters, farther from our planet in its orbit.
While future occupants of our planet will be able to see eclipses -- which occur anytime the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow -- they just won't have a chance to see the moon fully cancel out the light of our star.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
