Eclipses through the ages
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The solar eclipse that has everyone talking is right around the corner. And that’s partly because you won’t get to see another one like it here in the U.S. until 2044.
If you’re making the journey to see the total eclipse of the sun Monday, then you’re doing what people have been doing for centuries.
According to an historian at Michigan State University, whether our ancestors thought it was science or divine intervention, it has always been a spectacle.
“A solar eclipse is one of the most amazing phenomena in nature,” said MSU Professor of History Rich Bellon, who specializes in the history of science and medicine. “I mean, people have been fascinated with eclipse as far as history can record.”
Bellon said records of eclipses go all the way back to ancient China, Mesopotamia and Greece.
“Because they are so important and they are so interesting,” Bellon said. “Eclipses were often understood as divine intervention…a god or gods are sending a message. In ancient Greece, Zeus is illustrating his power.”
Solar eclipse viewing (Storyblocks) Solar eclipse (Storyblocks) Solar eclipse (Storyblocks) Humans have been traveling to see the total eclipse of the sun for centuries. (WLNS) Rich Bellon, History Professor at MSU (WLNS) Solar eclipse (Storyblocks) Rich Bellon, History Professor at MSU (WLNS)
In ancient China, when an eclipse happened, they believed a dragon had devoured the sun. But no matter what humans thought, it was no doubt an interruption of the normal course of our lives.
Fast-forward to the early 1900s–a solar eclipse observed over Brazil helped prove one of Einstein’s “theories of general relativity” and changed the way we think about gravity.
“Would the starlight actually be bent the way that general relativity said that it would…and Einstein was right, his theory was right,” Bellon said. “This becomes headline news, and Einstein becomes this international celebrity that we know of him today.”
Who knows what other discoveries we can make around these stunning alignments? At the end of the day, Bellon said, they have been proven to do one thing throughout history.
“The opportunity to see something so magnificent, it’s wonderful, and it can bring people, it can bring people together,” Bellon said.
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